


Dishonesty

by Kirimari46



Series: Dishonesty [1]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga), Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 40,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirimari46/pseuds/Kirimari46
Summary: In a world divided by the magical north and the plain south, the people have learned to live peacefully. Oriana, like many other mages, ran away from her duties with the Black Bulls after the elf incident. Her only wish is to live a common life until the end of her days. An odd future awaits Oriana and her dark past will be revealed. The question is, how long before she breaks?
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Original Female Character(s), Zora Ideale/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Dishonesty [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084499
Kudos: 3





	1. Let's talk about it

There is a whole continent up in the north, filled with people with magic powers whose story isn't told by any of the school's history books. This continent has a different essence, something else that the continents in the south do not have. Mana. Magic essence that only the natives of the north have within themselves and are able to control. Although they vow to protect the ones who aren't able to protect themselves, in the south they are feared for their mystical ways. There are no frontiers or walls between the north or the south, anyone is free to travel between the two poles. However, the people of the south are afraid of the powers of the northerns and, on the other hand, once a northern runs out of mana, there is no way to replenish it in the south.

Oriana White, like many other mages, came to the south to run away from the destiny handed to her. She is hoping to find a way to escape with her lies and just live a normal teenage life. Living in the dark side of history, Oriana had only seen the world through blurry eyes, ignored the pain without acknowledging how bad it had gotten. Although, after the elf incident in the Clover Kingdom, Oriana couldn't ignore it anymore. The life she chose for herself, she never realised how hard it would be and so she ran away to the South. Living in the Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Oriana enrolled in the Karasuno Highschool where she found welcoming new friends.

It's been one year since Oriana came to the South. After escaping the Magic Knight's duties and neglecting her own magic, she found happiness in the simplest things in her new life.

However, even though she has not noticed it yet, her dark past pursues her and an odd future awaits her.

\-----

The night settled by the time the volleyball team had cleaned the gymnasium. Even though the coach asked the boys to wrap up earlier and get some rest before the training camp, the team trained until the sun set and their energy tanks were completely empty.

Oriana welcomed the light breeze after a hot and sunny day. She was trying to focus on the relief from the heat so she wouldn't remind herself that she was, once more, waiting for her boyfriend and his chaotic team. Her club didn't hold activities until so late, so she has been waiting for a while. However, one other thing was bothering her, to the point she might or might not have broken another bullet proof glass.

The door to the club room opened and Sugawara was the only one on his way out. Also, the first one.

"Oi, Daichi! I'm stealing your girlfriend for a bit!" Suga divulged to the club room after noticing Oriana on waiting duty once again.

Sugawara didn't have time to take three steps before Daichi burst through the door with his jacket in hand,

"Wait for me, you two!"

"Nah, you always take too long. We are going on ahead." Oriana speaks from the bottom of the stairs, waving goodbye to her boyfriend.

It had been a long day as Oriana had witnessed another of Michimya's attempts to be relevant with her groupie while bullying a first year. Of course, Oriana felt the need to intervene, as much as she hated the fact that Michimiya would distort the whole story when telling it to her old friend Daichi, coincidently, Oriana's boyfriend. She was fuming just imagining the whole scene and how her boyfriend would tease her on how jealousy was not a good thing. However, Sugawara understood why Oriana would be suspicious of Michimiya. None of them ever felt any mana coming from her, but Sugawara's danger sensors would always tick off when the girl was around.

They have been avoiding the subject, as it only resulted in a wave of annoyance for the both of them, but after the episode during the lunch break, and this being the third time Oriana had broken a bullet proof glass, Suga knew they needed to talk about it.

"You have to be more careful, Oriana. You can't break a window everytime Michimiya bothers you." Sugawara nagged. "It was a bullet proof glass too and you're wasting magic power."

"I didn't use any mana to break the window." Oriana retorted in a low voice.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"You did that without-" he stopped himself after a glance from Oriana.

His voice tends to be loud when surprised and sometimes he is not as careful as he should be. Although Oriana was not any different in this case.

"Just tell me what happened." Suga lowered his voice.

Going down the hill, Oriana began her vent recounting the events of that afternoon. Michimiya was poking fun at her first year and Oriana happened to be passing by. When she intervened, Michimya cracked another joke at the poor girl.

What? You think that was funny? You just insulted her and expected me to laugh?

"That's what I told her!" Oriana said. "But she is going to tell something different to Daichi, I just know it."

"Yeah, she is kinda of a bully." Suga started. "When she met me for the first time she poked fun at me too."

"She did what?" Oriana's tone warned Suga that his friend was losing her cool.

"It was nothing. She stopped when me and Daichi enrolled in the same club."

"I'm not gonna let you put up with that!" she disclosed. "Really, if you told me to, I'd go punch her for you."

"I said it was nothing! It was a one time thing, It's over." Sugawara did his best to calm her down.

"Oi! Guys!" a voice sounded behind them. At the end of the hill, Tanaka called for the two friends. "Daichi is going to treat us to some food!"

Stopping in their tracks, Sugawara and Oriana waited for the club in Coach Ukai's store front. Oriana was impressed how the boys still had the energy to jump around and be their chaotic selves after an intense training session. She could feel their excitement for the following day. In a matter of hours they would be back to Karasuno and leave for the training camp Nekoma Highschool was hosting in Tokyo. Apparently, one of Tokyo's volleyball team networks holds this camp for their teams every year and this time, Karasuno was a special guest. An even more special guest was Oriana herself, as she had no role in the club, but offered to help Kiyoko, Yachi and all the other managers as their assistant. Truthfully, she was bored with her book club activities and this camp sounded way too much fun to miss out on. Plus, now she doesn't have to stay away from Daichi for almost a week.

Daichi delivered the two bags of food to Hinata and Tanaka, leaving the juniors to the food distribution. Leaning on Oriana's side, Daichi surrounded his girlfriend with his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"You smell nice." Daichi said.

"C'mon man, we're right here!" Nishinoya complained, stuffing his mouth with a meat bun.

"Yeah, Daichi! Stop saying embarrassing stuff!" Suga teased.

"Mind your own business!" Oriana said, stealing Hinata's second meat bun and biting into it.

"Hey, I didn't even do anything!" Hinata cried.

The group laughed and not long after Ukai was telling them to go home and get some rest, to which they complied. It was never a boring day with this chaotic team, it was exhausting sometimes for Oriana. They reminded her of the friends she had left in the north and how they interacted with each other. Although, a group of teenagers was definitely less dangerous than adult mages. No fireballs were flying and no walls were crumbling with the impact of anyone's punch. Their energy, however, it was enough to fill Oriana with the nostalgia of the life she left behind. It was hard in the beginning, Oriana would fend off any chance to spend more time with Suga's friends because they remind her too much of her own. Then, Daichi came around and approached her. As much as she tried to politely decline, he would just not let go and Oriana is glad he didn't. Compromises had to be made though. Oriana's past was too dark to casually reveal to her boyfriend or anyone native in the South, but she would never want to lie to him, so they met in the borderline. Daichi would wait for her to be ready and Oriana promised that one day, when it didn't hurt anymore, she would tell him everything.

\-----

A/N

Hello everyone!

I would like to make a few disclaimers before continuing with the fic.

First of all, I am aware that the worldbuilding might be a little confusing so I wanted to explain my vision. Imagine that our normal world map extended and there was a whole other continent on the north. That is where the Black Clover kingdoms would be. I wasn't sure how to make these two worlds work together, but I came up with this. There are also a few rules that you will become familiarized with as the fic continues.

Second of all, please- please don't assume I hate Michimiya for some reason. I don't, I think she's really wholesome and trying her best. However, I needed a female evil figure that was close to Daichi and you will understand why in the future. I thought of Kiyoko, but since she is so close with everyone in the volleyball club, it wouldn't work for the kind of dynamic I had in mind. Yachi wouldn't work either. There aren't many female characters in Haikyuu, so bare with me.

Finally, I'm an anime watcher only. I don't really enjoy reading manga and for this reason, I wanted to ask to refrain from spoilers in case you want to leave a review/comment. Thank you in advance!

I think this was all I wanted to point out. If the worldbuilding or anything about Oriana's or other characters powers gets confusing, you can always ask me! I understand a crossover between Black Clover and Haikyuu! might get cofusing at some point, but I'm always here to clear things out for you.

See you next time!


	2. Hush or they'll hear you

Mornings are usually easy for Oriana, however there was a sour taste in her mouth the night before. Waking up at four AM seemed excessive, but teacher Takeda insisted that their school couldn't be the last to arrive again. Arriving earlier meant they could help the Nekoma team with the preparations for the camp.

Even during the summer time, Oriana was forced to wear a second layer of clothing as she walked to Karasuno High along with Daichi. The cold stinged her hand, only her palm against her boyfriend's was remotely warm, but her fingers were freezing cold. The sun was starting to rise over the hill, warming her body with gentle heat. Daichi observed her, how the light catched her eyes. Her brown eye was coated with honey enhancing its depth. The purple one seemed almost pink in this light. He couldn't stop himself from smiling at those beautiful eyes, and also, it was impossible not to wonder about her past, what disturbing scenes have those eyes seen. He only wishes he could've been there for her at that time. Whatever happened, Oriana insists that she does not want to talk about it. Daichi was aware of the girl's difficulty with honesty, he understood it as a cooperation mechanism for whatever trauma she suffered in the past. If she asks her boyfriend, he will admit it, that he feels like something is missing whenever they are together.

The energetic team was quieter than usual, deeming the unholy hours they had to set their alarms to. The trip to Tokyo went smoothly as most of the time the bus was found in a slumber. Although, around lunch time, the boys were starting to get irritable, complaining about the time wasted in travel that could be used to be in the court. Daichi, feeling the restless energy from the team, was starting to get impatient himself. He almost got a serene and quiet trip. Almost.

Arriving at their destination, they had a sort of welcoming from the Nekoma team.

"Is that the Tokyo tower?" Nishinoya and Tanaka asked simultaneously, excited as it would be the first time seeing it.

"Really? Is it?" Oriana asked, also excited. She had only heard about the tall and imposing Tokyo Tower. One year in Japan had not given her the opportunity to visit it.

"It isn't. It's just a normal communication tower." a tall boy wearing the distinguished Nekoma red tracksuit answered their question.

Behind him, a boy with black bed hair laughed in a strange manner. Everyone in the club was already familiar with the Nekoma school due to their practice games. Oriana, however, recognized some of them from watching the games from the bleachers, but never actually met them.

"You have gotta be kidding me. There is another manager?" a boy with a blond mohawk couldn't take his eyes off Kiyoko and Yachi as Tanaka was showing them off.

After greeting the Nekoma team captain, Daichi reached his arm around Oriana's shoulder and whispered into her ear,

"Prepare yourself," he said. "If you think my team is energetic, you wait until they start conjoining forces." Daichi joked and Oriana laughed at his remark.

"Another one? What do you even need three managers for?" Nekoma's team captain bawled.

"What? A third one?" the blond mohawk cried.

"Actually, I'm not a manager. I just offered to help the managers in the camp." Oriana said.

"My girlfriend is amazing indeed." Daichi bragged.

"Isn't she just ditching your own club?" Tsukishima joked behind them. "Why did you even join the book club?"

"It's not my fault that the club is full of romance and young-adults lovers." Oriana complained. "I tried to convince them to read horror novels, but they're too scared."

"Daichi's girlfriend, huh? And so we meet," the Nekoma captain approaches Oriana, extending a hand to her. "I'm Kuroo Tetsurou."

"I'm Oriana White, nice to meet you." she takes his hand with a soft smile.

"A foreign name?" Kuroo questioned. "Where are you from?"

"I'm half japanese and half english." the simple lie now slips her tongue naturally. "I was born there, but I grew up in Japan."

Oriana was caught off guard the first time she was asked the same question. Thankfully, she had Sugawara to back her up back then.

"You're like Lev then!" the yellow mohawk spoke. "He's half russian."

The greetings pursued, Oriana had learned the tall man of colour was named Kai and the yellow mohawk was Yamamoto. Soon after, Kiyoko warned her that Yachi and herself were going to check out their room, inviting Oriana along.

\-----

The drill games started in the afternoon, but Oriana stayed behind to help the managers clean up the lunch dishes. This was until Yachi asked for her assistance in the gymnasium. The boys were finishing their second games and they didn't have enough managers to take care of their needs.

In Yachi's company, the two girls made a quick stop to fill the water bottles before heading to the gymnasium. It was quite a view. Besides the main buildings and the gyms, there was nothing but green grass and the ocean. It was a calm environment, away from the pollution of the big city. The gymnasiums were also impressive in Oriana's eyes. Each one fitted three normal size courts. It was different from the small Karasuno High gymnasium she was used to, more comparable to those of the competitions and official games she had watched from the bleachers, cheering for the Karasuno boys. And now it would be no different.

Although, upon arriving at the gymnasium the boys were playing, Oriana was faced with her favourite team in a punishment drill.

"They've been losing?" Oriana asked the manager still on her side.

"Yeah, there's been some tension in the team," Yachi began. "But teacher Takeda said that they were blooming. He made some comparison with- honestly, I don't really get what he says most of the time." she admitted, scratching the nape of her neck.

"To be fair, they are a pain in the ass to play against." a guy with the Fukurodani green vest pinched in.

"Yeah, you never know what they will come up with next." his teammate said.

"I think they are fun." another one began. "A challenge is always fun."

This last one, once they took a glance at Oriana, it turned into a curious glare. His yellow eyes were rather unnerving to Oriana.

"Do you wear only one contact lense or something?" he simply asked.

Before Oriana had the chance to answer, another of his teammates scolded him.

"Bokuto, that's rude."

"It's fine, you are not the first one to ask something like that." she couldn't help but send a look in Hinata's direction, speaking loud enough for the boy to hear her.

"I apologized!" he screamed, making Oriana laugh.

"And no, I don't wear contacts. This is the colour of my eyes."

"Really?" the boy wowed. "You must be Daichi's girlfriend Kuroo mentioned!" he remembered after noticing Karasuno High School embroidered into Oriana's t-shirt. "I'm Bokuto Koutaro!" he pointed to himself.

"You can call me Akaashi." the teammate that scolded him before, bowed slightly, introducing himself.

"I'm Oriana White."

Oriana glanced at the team who was just finishing their punishment drill, smiling softly at the boys, believing, or yet knowing that they would be okay. After losing to Seijoh, the boys have had a hard time, butting heads even, but their fighting spirit was far from dying out. This training camp was their opportunity to surpass their limits, right before the spring preliminaires.

\----

The first day of practice games was over. Before dinner, some of the boys grouped together for some extra individual training. Yachi left with the Fukurodani managers to prepare the boys meal and Oriana stayed with Kiyoko assisting the Karasuno team. Even after all the punishment drills, they still had energy to jump around and do spikes and receives. Oriana couldn't help but be impressed every time by their perseverance and physical strength. In the Clover Kingdom it wasn't everyone that would put the effort into their bodies, just when it was about leveling up their magic. So doing that kind of training just for the sake of playing a sport, was something new to Oriana, but she always respected their feelings towards it. Unfortunately, these feelings weren't shared by all the players. Tsukishima left the team early and gave up on his training before anyone else, stating he was feeling tired and worn out, leaving his teammates worried. Everyone was trying so hard, but Tsukishima seemed to be the only one not willing to put in the extra effort.

While putting the bottles down on the bench, Oriana noticed a pair of knee pads abandoned on the floor. Seeing all the boys were still wearing theirs, Oriana assumed they could only belong to Tsukishima.

"Hey, Yamaguchi." Oriana called out for the first year's attention. "Tsukishima forgot his knee pads. I'm going to catch up with him to give them back, in case anyone asks."

"Yeah, alright."

It was peaceful outside during the night. The faint noise of sneakers on the gymnasium floor, the ball bouncing around, the familiarity with that sound brought calmness to Oriana. Tucking her long black hair behind her ear, Oriana searched for Tsukishima's tall figure. He followed the right path and was now standing in front of the neighboring gymnasium, talking to the boys inside before heading inside and joining them.

Oriana trailed behind, following Tsukishima's steps. Cautiously approaching the gym doors, not wanting to distract the boys from their practice. A lean white haired boy was lying exhausted on the floor while Kuroo was complaining about his serves. Bokuto and Akaashi were also there making conversation with the tall bean pole from Karasuno. Oriana cleared her throat, calling for Tsukishima's attention. Unfortunately for her, not only Tsukishima heard her, but also Kuroo noticed her presence. She had no idea what she just got herself into.

"Oh, perfect! Now we have an even group of six!" Kuroo cheered.

"Is that a good idea?" Tsukishima asked, glancing at Oriana.

"Of course it is! Come, come. Let's play a practice game, three on three." the Nekoma captain invited.

"Actually, I only came because Tsukishima forgot his knee pads." she waved the pads in the air.

"Oh, come on! We only need one more." Bokuto insisted.

"Don't tell me you can't keep up with us." Kuroo provoqued.

With those words, he ticked something inside Oriana. The competitive side of her woke up from her long slumber. With a smirk on her face, she entered the gym, ready to kill. Or at least with the enthusiasm to slam some balls.

"Very well. Don't go crying home when I smash you." she grinned, dropping Tsukishima's pads on the floor.

Truth was, Oriana had an athletic body that she had been working on ever since she decided she was going to join a Magic Knight Squad. Training her body was a habit she gained in the Clover Kingdom, her friend Asta, back in the Black Bulls, pulled her even further into working her body into shape. Sure, she didn't have much experience with volleyball, the only experience she had was helping the Karasuno boys with spiking and serving drills and all the official games she had watched gave her a notion of the rules and roles each player had. All this gave her a certain confidence, even if she wasn't sure of what she was doing, she would just wing it.

"I like that enthusiasm." Kuroo pointed.

They divided the group into two teams. Kuroo, Lev and Tsukishima were on one team, Oriana, Bokuto and Akaashi in the second.

"This doesn't look very fair." Akaashi commented and he was right. All the taller players were on Kuroo's team, leaving the shorter ones in the second team.

"We'll be fine! Let's do it!" Bokuto's enthusiasm vibrated through the gym and sparkled Oriana's fiery competitiveness even further.

"Okay, sure. Let's discuss a strategy then."

"The only strategy we need is to win!" Bokuto yelled.

"Yeah!" Oriana agreed.

Knowing there was no way to reason with his teammates, Akaashi gave up the strategy and the game started.

Bokuto served the first ball, received effortlessly by Kuroo on the other side of the court. The ball went directly to Tsukishima that set the ball to the tall Nekoma player named Lev. Akaashi and Bokuto tried to block the ball, but only managed to barely touch it. Observing every move of the ball, Oriana's knees were soft and arms relaxed. With a couple of steps, she was under the ball and ready for a great receive.

"Nice receive!" Bokuto screamed.

"Yeah, not bad, not bad." Kuroo commented.

The ball had hardly reached the other side of the net when Oriana felt a wave of mana coming from outside, right before a loud explosive sound burst through the air. Oriana's body froze in place as her heart skipped a beat from fright.

'This is not possible. Not here,' Oriana thought to herself.

Everyone was staring at the exit door, but no one had the guts to make a move.

"I'll go see what the noise was." Oriana was the first to react.

"Wait, is that a good idea? We should stay inside and close the door" Akaashi said.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," she nodded confidently. "Just stay here, okay?"

Oriana ran outside, following the mana tracks in the air. Since Suga would be the only other mana Oriana could normally feel, this new trail was easy to follow. She went up the small hill and ran into the forest. Between the trees and bushes, she could feel the mana pulling her closer. This is not familiar mana, it also wasn't too strong, but definitely dangerous with so many innocent lives around.

Suddenly, Oriana stopped in her tracks, feeling a huge pressure of mana coming right on her direction, she barely had the time to dodge a mana blast, causing yet another explosive sound and leaving a trail of destruction between the trees.

Fallen on the ground, Oriana clenched her fist. This could not be happening. Who were these people and if they were after her, these were the main questions in her mind. If anything happened to any innocent people tonight, she would not be able to forgive herself. She managed to get herself up and optioned for a more indirect route to her target. Hiding her body in the bushes, she was running closer and closer to them.

Dirt and leaves tangled in Oriana's hair as something pushed her to the ground a second time, then pressed a hand over her mouth and whispered,

"Hush or they'll hear you."

It was Sugawara.


	3. A battle against aliens. Perhaps?

Kneeling behind a bush, Oriana and Sugawara observed the group of five mages that invaded their training camp. They didn't seem too strong and their mana didn't feel too threatening, but they still had to keep them away from everyone back in the gyms.

"You didn't happen to bring your grimoire?" Suga whispered.

"No, I don't carry it anymore."

In the first few months, Oriana wasn't able to get rid of her grimoire. It was an unexplainable feel of protection that made her more at ease. As she grew comfortable with her new lifestyle, she stopped carrying the book everywhere. Now she thinks about it just laying on a shelf, mixed in with all her ordinary books. Sugawara was the same, feeling safe in Miyagi, he never had to use magic at all and definitely didn't expect to need it in the training camp.

"You would think someone would've come for us by now." one of them complained.

"Yeah, we're just wasting mana like this." another one said. "Maybe she isn't here after all."

"She has to be!"

"We're basically after a dead girl. This is useless. Let's just tell the client we killed her and leave it at that."

Oriana clenched her fist around Suga's arm, gulping her fright down her throat.

They were after her. She should have known, the Black Bulls have made many enemies over the years. In many missions she would encounter rascals and capture criminals. Nevertheless, Oriana was still surprised. She was certain that no one besides the Black Bulls knew she was even alive. Although, now that she thinks about it, she is reminded that some of the Black Bulls have really big mouths and Asta is one loud kid. A casual conversation between the members was enough for someone on the outside to find out.

With a controlled sigh, she whispered,

"Let's stay put." she bit the inside of her cheek, in hopes her theory was right. "If they haven't spotted us yet, then I'm assuming it's because their mana senses aren't that great. They almost hit me with an attack before, but I'm positive that was fluke."

"What if they try and attack our friends?"

"Then, we intervene in any way we can. Let's hope these idiots just give up their mission."

After ten minutes, the impatient bunch decided to head home. One of them opened a spatial portal and after they left the local, Oriana and Suga couldn't feel anymore mana around. Oriana's bottom hit the floor once again, she let out a sigh of relief, dropping her shoulders. Suga joined her in the dirt.

"I can't believe our luck." Suga said leaning backwards.

Oriana opened her eyes and stared into space. Clenching her fists, she had come to a decision and unfortunately, there was no way around it.

"We have to start carrying our grimoires again. For everyone's safety."

When the duo went back to the corresponding gyms, the groups bombarded them with questions. Beforehand, Oriana and Sugawara forged a simple narrative on how they hadn't found anything besides a couple of trash cans on the floor. Somehow, they had to convince them that the explosive blasts were nothing out of the ordinary, which was not easy especially when in the middle of nowhere. They both also spent time taking the leaves out of Oriana's long hair from when she had fallen while evading the second blast.

The following days passed with no more accidents. Both Oriana and Sugawara felt uneasy with the possibility of another hijacking while they didn't have their grimoires. There was barely anything they could do without them, which meant immense trouble. They were both exhausted as they slept with an eye open, always alert to any trace of mana that wasn't each other's.

It was the last day of the training camp and the last game between Karasuno and Fukurodani was on a roll. The mages tried their best to concentrate on the game in front of them, but they couldn't get immersed in it. Nevertheless, the cheers for the Karasuno team never faltered.

"One more!" Oriana screamed on Daichi 's turn to serve.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping the managers?" Enoshita questioned.

"They said I deserve a break!" she answered in her defense making Enoshita chuckle.

In the end, even with the tutoring of the last days and getting into shape thanks to all the diving drills and running up and down the hill, Karasuno still lost their last game, resulting in one last punishment for the poor boys. The Fukurodani team was cheering their ace and his passion was shining brighter than just a few moments ago, when he decided to tell his setter not to send him any more balls. Oriana was trying not to laugh at his behaviour. It was hard for her to believe Bokuto was a third year, leave alone the ace and captain of the team.

"We lost to the very end." Daichi approached Oriana, his arms wrapping her shoulders from the back and resting his chin on her head.

"I don't think that's true at all." she began, Daichi now looking down on her with a raised brow. "Yes, it's true you guys lost most of your games, but it's also true that you got most of this training camp. I'm no expert, but anyone could see the difference in your plays and team rhythm between the first day and today."

"You really got all that just from watching?"

Oriana turned to Daichi, still inside of his embrace.

"You think I don't pay attention?" she smirked.

"I just didn't know how much attention you were paying." he led one of his hands to the top of Oriana's head, pulling her close to leave a gentle kiss in her forehead.

"Well, I guess it's time for your surprise now." Oriana said.

"Oh, the barbecue? We already know about that."

"What? How come?" Oriana gave a step back.

"I overheard the coaches talking about it, sorry about that." Daichi's voice faltered in his guilt.

"Seriously? We worked so hard..."

With an amused look, Daichi grabbed Oriana's hand and walked her out of the gym, joining everyone already outside.

"It won't change anything. We still appreciate all your hard work. I'm serious."

As usual, Daichi always knew what to say to lift Oriana's spirit. She still would've liked to see his surprised face, but enjoying the food with him and their friends was something she's been looking forward to.

The delicious smell of barbecue was filling the air and everyone was ready to tackle when the coaches were done with their speech. While talking with Hinata, Lev and Kenma, Oriana got to witness another of Daichi's dad moments as he was trying to feed Tsukishima more food than he could eat, as Kuroo and Bokuto joined the chaos. In the distance, she also saw Nishinoya's, Tanaka's and Yamamoto's protective behaviour over Kiyoko. She waved Sugawara and Kai over to her, so they could observe and laugh at the players' reactions to those three boys' weird dance and faces. Eventually, Kenma joined in the mockery. It really looked like some sort of demonic ritual.

"How did you get those scars, Oriana?" Hinata asked suddenly, noticing the scratches on Oriana's arm from the first night's episode.

Oriana bit the inside of her cheek, thinking of a convincing reason, until she noticed that she didn't need one at all.

"Battling aliens." Oriana answered, looking as serious as possible, looking Hinata in the eyes.

"That's true. After the battle, Oriana and I got drunk to celebrate and she fell off the bar table. The scars are from her landing on a broken bottle." Sugawara said.

"Suga! I thought we agreed to lie a little because my answer sounds cooler!" Oriana exclaimed.

"I mean, You still battled aliens." Suga shrugged.

"Wait, are you guys serious?" Lev asked histerically. "You even got drunk after? Aren't you underage?"

"That's what you are focusing on?" Kenma noted.

"It was a fierce battle, shame you guys missed it." Oriana said.

"But that's amazing Oriana! Tell me more about it!" Hinata begged.

Oriana and Sugawara shared a look and couldn't help but snicker at the young boy's innocence.

The training camp in Tokyo was over. It was not long before the Spring Preliminaries and the last battle for the third years, all the way to Nationals. Or so they hoped.


	4. Who did this to you

The wind was fiercer that day than it usually is in between these hills. The greens and yellows of the meadow danced along with the wind, making patterns on the ground under Oriana's sight. Her long jet black braid danced the same rhythm as the meadow, gently brushing her back to the left and to the right.

In one of her wanderings in the Miyagi prefecture, she was lucky to find a place like this, while getting lost for entertainment. This was a habit of hers before she met the Karasuno Volleyball Team and made new friends. She would wander alone, exploring, but now she would only go to where they took her or to places she was familiar with. She wouldn't want to get lost anymore, as she might worry her new friends and have to bother them to find her. It was more convenient this way. Nevertheless, she was grateful for this special spot she managed to find. It was always windy there, sometimes to the point where it clogged her ears completely, but nature felt welcoming around her.

After showing this place to Daichi only, he would often stop by when looking for her. If she wasn't home or answering her phone, most likely she was sitting in a rock, above the hills observing the patterns in the meadow, thinking of what only she would know. Today was no different.

"I found you." he crouched by her side, leaving a small peck on her cheek.

She hugged his body as he sat down beside her. In the silence between the two, Daichi was wondering, once again, what Oriana's past might have looked like. It's been months, he doesn't want to disrespect her and drive her away, but he can't erase the feeling that sharing something like that would bring them closer. There would always be a missing piece in their picture as long as Oriana would keep her secrets, a certain distance between, no matter how close they hold each other.

"Are you ever gonna tell me?" he asked softly to her ear.

"One day." Oriana said. "I promised one day I would tell you."

"I know that, but-" he thought twice about what to say next. "It feels like you don't trust me enough."

His words surprised Oriana. As a matter of fact, she was scared Daichi would not trust her anymore after he found out. The more time it passed, the thinner their trust would be.

"Just leave it be, for now." her voice faltered at the thought.

"You've been asking me that for months."

It's not that easy. You will understand why I've been avoiding it. I swear.

It's what she was going to say before Daichi spoke again.

"It's disrespectful how you've handled this." his voice became tense. Daichi distanced himself from her, just enough to look her in the eyes. "You can't just avoid the subject forever."

"You know what's disrespectful?" Oriana looked up, square into his eyes. Her soft voice turned into an angry tone. "Prying into other people's business."

"I'm your boyfriend, Oriana. Don't I deserve to know?"

"And do you tell me everything?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do." he answered honestly. "I don't hide anything from you in the hopes to make you comfortable to do the same, but it's leading us nowhere."

Oriana clenched her fists around Daichi's shirt. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do, that's why she just had to get up and leave him there.

"Where are you going?" Daichi asked, conflicted.

"To another place, to think- To do anything but this."

Her emotions were in a wire as Daichi saw the fabric of her dress fly in front of his eyes, snapping him out of his own anger.

"Wait, let me walk you home." he said.

"I need to be alone right now."

The chains of her past holding back everything she actually wanted to say and her tears filling her vision as she stormed away in the green hills, away from Daichi.

"I'll go with you, please-please don't go like this."

Oriana did not respond and Daichi considered getting up to follow the girl as she had the habit of getting lost. He couldn't hear her sobs over the strong wind, because if he had, he would have gone after her, embraced her like he always does and they would meet in the borderline. Renew their promise once again and things would be fine for now.

Meanwhile, Oriana went on her rampage, letting go of all of her frustrated tears. She couldn't just show Daichi her powers, she couldn't reveal who she was. Oriana lived on this cycle of omiting her past, to the very lengths of hiding her true name. In the Black Bulls she could be the misfit she was, hiding her background from all the others. In Miyagi she had to hide everything that made her the person she is today and reinvent herself to fit in this world. She didn't have a choice. Oriana could not show them the monster she was.

Another tragic ending was something she did not need and hopefully, she was not too late.

Looking up, Oriana glanced around her surroundings only to realize she had no idea where she was anymore. She went down the hills, back to the road, wandered through the streets of the city until the sun had set and got herself lost again. This hasn't happened in a while and there was only one person she could call for help. Grabbing her phone from her small purse, she looked for Daichi's name in her contact list, he picked up instantly. Surprised, Oriana cleared her throat before speaking.

"Daichi… I'm lost."

"It's okay, just describe the place where you are." his patient tone calmed Oriana.

She was close to a small kids' playground, with a yellow dirty slide and a couple of rusty swings. There weren't that many playgrounds in Miyagi, so Daichi had a pretty good guess where Oriana might be.

"Stay where you are, I'm coming for you."

"I'll wait for you." Oriana reassured.

She was about to end the call, but Daichi spoke again,

"Stay on the phone with me, love."

She couldn't resist when he used adorable nicknames like those and as much as she doesn't want to admit, it made her feel safer in the darkness on the street. So, she took a seat on a bench close by, clenched her phone closer to her ear.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." Oriana murmured and Daichi smiled softly on his end of the line.

"And I'm sorry I pressured you." he said. "I'll try to be more patient, I never wanted you to just run off."

"You are the most patient person I've ever met." she scoffed.

"Is that right?" his voice sounded both on the phone, but was also loud enough for her to hear it echoing on the empty street.

Oriana looked up and recognized the tall figure to be Daichi. They both put down their phones and walked towards each other. The first thing Daichi did was take off his dark jean jacket and put on Oriana's shoulders.

"It's too cold for you to be here without a jacket on." Daichi said as he helped Oriana with the sleeves and buttoning the jacket all the way to the collar.

"Is this really necessary?" she laughed at his habit to behave like a protective father.

When he was done with the buttons, he glided one of his hands to Oriana's lower back, pulling her close and he connected his lips to hers. Putting one hand in his face, Oriana deepens the kiss. She misses him like she hasn't seen him in ages. It feels like it was ages ago when they last spent time together alone.

"Can I take you home?" Daichi asked, leaving one last kiss on Oriana's cheek.

She hummed in agreement.

"Wanna stay for dinner? We could cook together," she suggested, fiddling with the buttons of the jean jacket.

"Sounds perfect."

\-----

The days got colder every week closer to the spring preliminaries. Three more days before the first game against Ohgiminami High. Ever since the incident in the training camp, both Sugawara and Oriana made sure to always carry their grimoires in their bags and keep them nearby at all times. Some of their friends had noticed their strange new habit of carrying their bag around even during lunch time, which was unusual, but never really asked them about it.

Speaking of such, the bell rang for the lunch period on Karasuno High and immediately students started moving around the classroom. By the time Oriana packed her bag and left her desk, an unexpected visitor was already waiting for her by the door.

"Hey, Oriana! You're having lunch with me today." Sugawara disclosed. "Is that okay?"

"Of course. But what about Daichi?" she asked, as they made their way through the hallway together.

"He and Kiyoko were abducted by Takeda. Something about discussing the details about the trip to the preliminaires." he said. "You're coming this time too, right?"

"You know I will. I saw you guys train for this, there is no way I'm missing a single game!"

The conversation about volleyball died down by the time they approached the vending machine, near the club gym. Sugawara became unusually silent all of a sudden and his expression made Oriana try and guess what was going on before asking. She cleared her throat before speaking, already in fear of his answer, but Suga spoke before her.

"Oriana, do you sense it?" he was trying to hide it, but the quaver in his voice was prominent.

"What? Sense what?" Oriana was immediately brought to her alert mode.

"I feel like…" there was a break in his voice. "I've had this odd feeling for a while."

These words made Oriana bite the inside of her cheek. Sugawara was not one to joke about matters like this one, in fact, he had never done so and his serious behaviour was a rare sight.

"What do you mean?"

"There is an ominous feeling in the air, it's coming from the north."

"Like, there is something coming here?" she asked in a panic.

"No. Not like that." he pondered for a second how he could word this feeling. "It's not coming this way, but there is something going terribly wrong in the north."

In a moment of weakness, Oriana felt difficulty to breathe. She could only imagine the danger her friends in the Clover Kingdom could be in. Even if Sugawara's danger warnings were out of this world, when Oriana told him about the elf incident, he didn't even suspect anything was happening in the north at the time. With this in mind, just how dangerous was this new threat that Suga could feel it all the way in Miyagi?

'Just what the hell is going on?'

The week of preliminaries went by smoothly. The Karasuno team managed to get to the qualifiers and as promised, Oriana cheered the team in the bleachers, next to Yachi, Tanaka's older sister, Saeko, and two members of the Neighborhood Association Team, Makoto Shimada and Yusuke Takinoue.

It had become a habit for Saeko to offer to take Oriana to the games with her, it became apparent that Tanaka's older sister got a liking for both Oriana and Yachi, behaving like their older sister. When they arrived at the pavilion together, there were many athletes hanging out in the entrance. With no Karasuno boys in sight, Saeko headed directly for the bleachers, while Oriana made her way to the bathrooms, where she found one of her friends in a very peculiar situation.

She was sure she saw a familiar orange head bobbing around the bathroom doors, surrounded by tall and big players from other schools and a mob of people was starting to join in a big commotion, discussing the players involved in an alleged fight.

"Is Karasuno's number 10 trying to pick a fight with them?"

Oriana heard someone comment. So she really did see Hinata in trouble. It was not like the boy to pick up fights for no reason, so she knew this must be a huge misunderstanding and that she had to intervene somehow. Pushing through the crowd, she finally made her way to the front of the crowd.

"HInata!" she called, approaching the group. "What's going on?"

"Oriana, help!" the boy cried, hiding himself behind Oriana and holding her shoulders with trembling hands. However, Oriana was barely any taller than Hinata, so he didn't do much of the hiding.

"You punks enjoy picking on first years?" Oriana spoke to the four players that had just noticed her presence.

Noticing the different uniform colours and the competitiveness in the air, she understood this was probably some argument between teams that Hinata got caught up on. She even recognised some of the colours from previous official games.

"For someone so small, she sure has guts…" someone in the crowd commented, annoying Oriana even more.

"Yeah, Oriana, you're not scared of these dudes?" Hinata asked behind her.

"Scared?" Oriana scoffed, turning to Hinata. "I know this huge, muscular man that could pick you up off the ground just from grabbing your head." she simulated the gesture she had described, leaving Hinata in awe.

"You know guys like that?"

"Yup, so these kids are nothing at all." she waved them off.

"Kids?" one of the players asked bluntly. "You are a highschool student too, no?"

"Uhm, yeah I am." Oriana was sure she saw this boy somewhere before, the purple of his uniform was also familiar.

"Wouldn't that make you the same age as us?"

Shit, Oriana was caught lying again. She is in truth, older than any of them, but if she wanted to enroll in any college or hope for a job in the future, she had to have a high school degree. Since she was still young and looked the part, the Magic Embassy in Japan enrolled her in Karasuno High without presenting any other options.

"Yeah, that's right. It's just a matter of speech." she brushed the guy off.

"I don't get it."

'Is this guy serious right now?' -Oriana wondered to herself.

Another one of the players was now approaching her, looking up close, she knew exactly who he was. Maybe if she saw him wearing casual clothes, she wouldn't notice, but the teal in his uniform left no room for mistake. Oikawa Toru, the captain of Aoba Johsai, the team that eliminated Karasuno last tournament.

"You have really pretty eyes." the boy hummed as he leaned down to Oriana's face level.

Clenching her fists, Oriana was ready to act had the boy come any closer, but a bouncing orange head put himself between her and Oikawa.

"Don't do that!" he said, putting his arms out protectively. "She's our captain's girlfriend and our dear friend!"

Dropping her shoulders, Oriana grinned at Hinata. She felt like a proud mother seeing him being so brave for her, even though his legs were literally shaking and his voice trembling.

"Very well… I wasn't even doing anything, though." Oikawa smiled innocently.

"Stop that, shittykawa." his teammate scolded.

The crowd eventually dispersed and Oriana headed on to the bleachers, waving Hinata goodbye, completely forgetting she had to go to the bathroom herself. If anything, this little episode made her even more fired up for the games ahead, even if she wasn't the one in the court.

However, things got really ugly during the Karasuno High vs Johzenji High match, leaving Oriana's heart on a leap. Daichi got badly hurt, his body was unconscious in court for a few seconds during the second part of the game. Oriana couldn't breathe right until he saw him moving again. Running from the bleachers to Daichi's side and assisting him with whatever he needed, there was nothing that could separate her from Daichi that moment.

Oriana wasn't doing a very good job pretending not to be worried, like Ukai coach advised. The bruise in Daichi's face was all tones of purple. In her mind, the moment Daichi's body collapsed on the ground next to Tanaka's, spitting a tooth and bleeding from his mouth soon after was on a loop. When Daichi fell asleep in the infirmary was when she allowed her signs of distress to show. Clenching her fist around Daichi's hand, she pressed her forehand softly on his shoulder and tears started coming out without anyone's permission.

Ever since that episode, Oriana didn't allow Daichi to get out of her sight. For the rest of the day, she was clutching to Daichi's side, refusing to let him go freely.

The accident kept coming up to her during her dreams. Eventually, she couldn't sleep anymore and opened her eyes. She dropped her shoulders with the vision of Daichi safe and asleep right next to her.

'There is nothing to worry about, everything is fine now.'

She reassured herself, bringing her body closer to his, she rested her face on Daichi's chest, shielding her eyes from the low setting sun outside. She didn't want this time to pass, ever. For all Oriana cared, they could spend the rest of eternity napping next to each other, always warm and comfortable.

Although, it wasn't long before other haunting thoughts filled her mind. Now that Daichi's scare was over, there was something else that was bothering Oriana. Sugawara's precognitive warning. She can't get Suga's words out of her head either. How something so dangerous was about to happen. How her friends were so far away and she had no way of contacting them. How she ran away from all of it.

Oriana felt Daich's arm brushing her back and his lips kissing the top of her head.

"What is it, love?" he groaned, still half asleep.

Oriana wasn't surprised, of course he knew something was off. Daichi always did.

"Are you still worried about what happened during the match?" he murmured to Oriana's hair.

"No, it's not that. I know you're okay."

Daichi tilts Oriana's chin up to get a better look at her face and the dark shadows of her eyes. A delicate thumb brushes Oriana's lips, none of them saying nothing for a few seconds. After a brief pause, Oriana's heart skips a nervous beat as Daichi looks her dead in the eyes. His voice was quiet and tense, his concern barely restrained,

"Who did this to you?"


	5. I will tear you apart

"Who did this to you?"

Even if Oriana never told Daichi about her past, she could never bring herself to lie, especially when he was holding her close like this. She knew her boyfriend could see the broken heart beneath her generous soul. Even if she tried to lie now, Daichi would know it.

"Don't worry about it." she said simply.

"Of course I'm going to worry about you," he says. "That look in your eyes…"

Oriana shifted away from him and kicked her legs from under the blankets.

"Where are you going?" he wondered.

"It 's late. Your parents will probably be home soon."

"Oriana, don't run away from this. Talk to me." Daichi was begging.

It had come to this point that Daichi had to beg his girlfriend to talk to him, this didn't sit right with Oriana, but neither did lying to his face. Even so, she said nothing, leaving the bed they were sharing. Although, this time was different. This time, Daichi seemed bound to get a straight answer.

In a swift movement, he got out of the bed and ran to the bedroom door, positioning his body between Oriana and the exit.

"Oh, c'mon. Really?" she grunted. "Now is when you decide to act like a child?"

"I don't care about that." he said. "I'm not stepping aside until you back up and tell me what's going on."

"It's not that easy..."

"You saw it yourself today, didn't you? How easily you could lose me. I overheard coach Ukai and Takeda talking about it. The accident could have easily given me a concussion and who knows what could've happened after that." he spread his arms to her, in a reasoning action. "Are you really going to let this happen and not tell me?"

Oriana clenched her fists. Daichi's words piercing her very soul, she could already feel the tears stinging her eyes.

"Maybe you did get a concussion after all." her voice sounded strangled at the end of the sentence. "Because this is not like you."

"Love, just listen to me. I don't want to die thinking I never got to help you." he said soft-spoken.

That was all it took for Oriana. She looked Daichi straight in the eyes, not taking a breath as she spoke,

"So is this what you're doing now? Are you going to just guilt trip me into telling you about my past? Is that your plan?" Oriana didn't notice, but her hands started to glow a bright blue hue within her fists. "You have no idea what I've seen. You could not have a clue about what I've been through. I've been running in circles trying to tell you and you are being so damn persistent."

The blue in her palms was glowing brighter and brighter to the point that Daichi had his back glued to the door behind him, staring at Oriana's hands.

"Just let it go! Dammit!"

With the ring of her voice, Oriana's palms were forced open by her own magic. A blast of mana hitting the ground right under her resulted in two scorched marks on Daichi's bedroom floor. Smoke danced in the air, surrounding Oriana's body before disappearing.

"How did you do that?" Daichi was the first one capable of speaking.

Meanwhile, Oriana stared at the floor with shaky hands. The very last thing she was hoping to happen was this, to be overwhelmed by her emotions to the point where she couldn't control the mana inside her. Oriana dropped to her knees in defeat.

"I guess… there is no point in hiding it anymore." her voice wobbled as tears fell directly into her clenched fists on the floor.

Daichi had never seen his girlfriend seem so fragile like this very moment. At the sight of Oriana crying, defeated on the floor, his body relaxed and moved to her. He cupped her face and gently rubbed the tears from her face. Most of all, he was relieved. Oriana was so strong all the time that he feared that she wasn't capable of being vulnerable anymore. That she had lost that part of her along the way.

Her body shifted and lunged forward, hanging on Daichi's shoulders, she cried all her feelings away and he didn't move. He accepted her moment of weakness, embraced it.

"I want to tell you now." she blurted against Daichi's shirt.

In his gentle and patient way, Daichi helped his girlfriend to her feet, letting her rest on his bed again. She took a deep breath, cleared her throat. Never taking her eyes of Daichi's hands, holding her own, she told him everything.

Oriana was born in the north, where people have mana inside of them and magical powers, like the ones he would see in movies. How their powers worked, she even showed him her grimoire. How their society was organized, how the magical knights protected the ones with less mana. Everything she could think at the moment.

"Where do you fit in the Clover Kingdom?" he asked once Oriana was over.

"I was in one of the magic squads. The Black Bulls."

"That means you were a magic knight?" his voice trembled with the sudden enthusiasm.

"Yup, I did." she smiled softly, caressing Daichi's hand. "But I left."

Before he could ask why, she was already speaking.

"Our last enemy, they were elves. Before they went extinct, they were the most powerful race in the world. However, they were planning their revenge on the human race for so long, all thanks to a misunderstanding. A demon was orchestrating the whole thing. He wanted to dominate the world, north and south," Oriana explained. "All that pain, all that sorrow. It was provoked by a single demon that waited patiently for centuries to put his plan into action." she cleared her throat. "The whole city was destroyed, we had to rebuild. Or they had. I left before the rebuilding even started. I had to fight friends of mine." her breath became shaky as she spoke. "Those people are family to me, but the elves possessed their bodies with full intention to kill-" her words were cut short by the sudden pain in her chest.

"You okay?" Daichi reached for her shoulder.

Looking in his eyes for the first time since she started telling her story, she answered honestly.

"It still hurts. But I'll be fine."

"There's no need to be so strong all the time anymore. I'm here, I can help you."

"I know." she paused. "And there is something else. Before joining the Black Bulls…"

\-----

Today was the rematch between Karasuno and Aoba Johsai, the semi-finals. Whoever wins this game, is in the finals against Shiratorizawa. After that, it's nationals. The nerves were palpable between the Karasuno boys and their cheering section. Last time they played against Seijoh, they lost. It left a dent in their pride, but it didn't bring them down. They have been training for this very day. Karasuno Highschool was not the same team they were during the fall.

Upon the team's arrival, Saeko and Oriana waited for them at the entrance. There were less teams playing, but definitely more spectators. Greeting the team, Oriana took advantage of Tanaka's and Nishinoya's chaotic behaviour to approach Sugawara.

"You have your grimoi- your book with you?" she corrected.

"Ah, yes." Suga immediately opened his bag, discreetly taking his grimoire and putting on Oriana's bag. "Thanks for holding on to it for me."

"We have to keep them close. I won't leave the bleachers until you leave the court. Better safe than sorry."

"Suga, it's time to go." Asahi called.

Waving goodbye, Suga joined the team. Only Oriana and Daichi were left behind.

"Win this." she said, giving the boy a good luck kiss.

While the boys were warming up, Oriana and Saeko joined the cheering squad in the bleachers. Oriana remembered Oikawa's fangirls that joined them last time. Seijoh's captain sure was popular and had a large fan base, but that wasn't enough to win. Not again.

Not before long, the game started and it was Seijoh's turn to serve and no other than Oikawa himself was serving. The whistle blew and the ball was sent to the air. Just before Oikawa hit the ball with a monsterous serve, Oriana felt a presence around the area. Way too close to the game for her to ignore. A mage was there, it was approaching the gym.

At the same time the ball hit the floor, just behind Nishinoya, the ceiling above the neighboring court collapsed. The traces of mana were undeniable. Clenching her fists around her bag, Oriana met Suga's eyes, who was already running in the direction of the explosion. The exterior light beamed inside of the gym, being the main source of light since most of the lamps were out. With the clarity and the panicked screams, it was hard for Oriana to adjust her senses. She could barely see the figure that descended through the hole in the ceiling, riding it's broom, but she did not hesitate.

"Suga, catch!" she screamed before launching Suga's grimoire, which he immediately opened.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman." a modulated voice greeted.

Pulling her own grimoire, Oriana casted a spell.

"Bone Magic: Bone Sword" with this, there was a blue hue glowing in her wrists from where two pale white swords emerged, above her fists.

Oriana jumped over the handrail and then again in the enemy's direction.

"There is no need to panic," he was interrupted by Oriana's action.

Surprised, he blocked her attack with his arm gun of solid air by instinct.

"I'm trying my best to be polite, but if you move your sword a centimeter closer to me, I will tear you apart." the strange mage discloses, narrowing his eyes.


	6. In case I don't come back

"I'm trying my best to be polite, but if you move your sword a centimeter closer to me I will tear you apart." the strange mage discloses.

Despite the warning, Oriana didn't give in, pressing her swords against his arm.

"A dual sworder… bone magic nonetheless." the mage observed. "You must be the lady my futile colleagues failed to kill." with no response from Oriana, the mage assembles another gun from the air around his free arm. "Now, away."

With no hesitation, a beam of mana hits Oriana in the chest, sending her body to the floor, causing more damage to the building and more dust to pollute the air. The ones left in the court watched in disbelief as the bleachers were in absolute chaos.

"What are you waiting for?" Sugawara screamed to both teams. "Get out of here!"

"Flora magic: Flora root" casting this spell, Sugawara stretched his arms as plant roots shot from his palms, forming a spider web big enough to imprison the mage.

"You, young man, also have a wonderful type of magic." he divulged. "Air magic: Aerial Ripping Rocket" with a single air shot, the whole root web was destroyed. "However, I am stronger."

The mage looked around in the clouds of dust for his target, dismissing Sugawara, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, this is no good. Air magic: Enchanting Cyclone" a cyclone followed his spell, cleaning the air of the dust and also taking everything with it.

Benches, nets and papers flew in the strong wind along with Oriana's and Sugawara's bodies until the mage was satisfied and nulled the spell, leaving everything that flew with it to deal with gravity. Oriana groaned when she tried to pull her weight to her elbows. Fighting for air to reach her lungs, her gaze found the mage's. The smug look on his face made Oriana contort her face in frustration.

"There you are!" he hummed, pulling his air gun to her direction. "One more of these and the job will be done."

Before she could order her body to move forcibly, a shadow was cast on her as someone had positioned themselves protectively in front of Oriana. Most of the players left the court and ran for safety, but not all of them.

"Daichi, what are you doing? It's dangerous!" Oriana's voice scratched when she tried to speak.

"I won't let anything happen to you." Daichi's voice was tense, but he did not move an inch from his stance.

"Don't be an idiot." Oriana coughed the dust, her voice was clearer as she rose behind Daichi. "I'm the one who is protecting you right now."

"I sense no magic from this one…" the mage murmured. "Get out of my way you commoner pest."

With a flick of his wrist, a gust of wind blew Daichi to the side. It was a rough landing and Oriana rushed to his side immediately, retrieving her swords.

"Are you okay?" Oriana asked, lifting his head.

"Yeah, it was nothing."

"Listen to me, you have to escape." Oriana left the boy seated on the floor.

Sugawara joined Oriana, taking a protective stance before Daichi with his open grimoire.

"Leave this to us." Suga said reassuringly.

"We will definitely protect you!" Oriana and Sugawara spoke in unison.

"How touching…" the mage hummed. "Looks like I'm killing the three of you after all.

As the enemy prepared for another air blast, Oriana cast another spell.

"Bone magic: Forth Swords"

This time, adding to the two bone swords, another pair of blades grew from under her fist.

"Go Oriana. I'll support you."

"Roger that!"

As the stranger's air blast was charging, at the same time, Oriana prepared to block it and attack with her swords, something else was approaching. Oriana felt the familiar mana coming from the same direction her enemy had blasted a hole. Her body froze with this new provoking presence.

In a flash, someone else was between the trio on the floor and the blast. A wide magic circle was drawn in the air, swallowing the spell, then a similar blast with double the power of the original spell hit the mage directly. The enemy fell from his broom and landed with a thud, unconscious.

"Sorry, I was late, but you seem unharmed."

Oriana was in disbelief, staring at the figure upon her.

"Who is this guy? Is he an enemy too?" Sugawara lowered his voice. "He looks scary."

Oriana couldn't judge him. With a mask containing a mouth full of sharp teeth, hiding half of his face and those piercing blue eyes, Oriana thought he looked scary too the first she met the guy. Although, after spotting the Black Bulls robe, Suga relaxed, sort of.

"Are you not gonna thank me?" the mage jumped from his broom and was approaching Oriana.

"Wha- what are you.." her voice cracked, incapable of speech.

Now on his feet, Daichi exchanged a look with the mage and pushed his friend's arms gently.

"We should leave now."

"What are you doing here?!" Oriana snapped, screaming in the red head's face.

"Saving your ass." his casual tone was getting on Oriana's nerves, causing her to lose her cool.

"You just came here? With that creepy mask? And the Black Bulls robe? Do you want to get arrested?"

"Huh? Arrested for saving all these people?"

The gym was empty at this point, only five people still present including himself and an unconscious person.

"That's not how it works here!" she yelled. "Take off that mask, take off that robe and put a goddamn shirt on!"

"Calm down, bean." he said. "I have a message for you, but you have to relax first."

Oriana felt her fists flinch at this point, not sure if she wanted to punch him or hug him. Right now the punching was winning.

"I swear, you are going to be the end of me, Zora Ideale."

\-----

Before the authorities arrived, Sugawara immobilized the unknown mage with roots he had conjured so he couldn't use his magic to escape and the group fled the scene. No matter the amount of explaining, it wouldn't look good for them. It had been a really, really long day. With the gym destroyed, they had no other choice but to reschedule the match in another gym.

Meanwhile, Sugawara, Daichi and Zora rushed to Oriana 's house to process the situation and try to calm down the disturbed teammates. On a mobile device strange to Zora, the other three were chatting with a group of loud teenagers who were pleading for an explanation. Without even seeing the screen and even though he wasn't in the living room with them, Zora was sure one of the kids on the other side was even crying. Finally the call ended and he was able to sit with them.

"They all saw, huh?" Oriana murmured.

"The secret is out of the bag. What the hell do we do now?" Suga groaned as Oriana tried to bandage the restless boy.

"Stop moving Suga, I can't work like this."

"Sorry." he sighed.

Zora recognised every one of her movements, familiar to her routine when doing this, with her exhausted voice after a rough battle and her feelings of overwhelm. Then, Oriana had caught Zora's gaze.

"Are you okay? That was your strongest spell, right? Are you feeling sick or anything?"

"Nah, I'm alright. That isn't enough to run me out." Zora said. "You were the ones who took the beating."

The air around the table felt confusing. There was relief after a battle won, but the one without magic had a dumbfounded look on his face. He would also give Zora side glances when he thought Zora wasn't looking, but he knew.

"Okay, you are done." Oriana spoke softly. "Well, I'll try to, hm." she looked around the table, then around the room, like the words she was looking for were written in the walls. "I'll see if, hm, I can cook some food. For you guys." she finally said.

"I think she lost it." Suga whispered once Oriana left the living room.

With a sigh, Zora lifted himself. Still fumbling with the slippers Oriana gave him and made him use. As comfortable as they were, his normal shoes were more practical, but no shoes in the house was the rule.

"I'll check on her before she kills herself trying to cook. You rest or whatever."

Upon arriving in the kitchen, Zora witnessed a lost Oriana. She was fetching ingredients around her kitchen, but it didn't even look like she knew where the things were. He observed Oriana, leaning on the door frame. She was looking in every cupboard for a cutting board, then found her first ingredients easily, but then looked in two different drawers for a knife.

"You okay over there?"

Oriana's head snapped up, but she didn't look at the character behind her.

"Yup, just fine." Oriana said. "You had a message for me?"

Zora crossed his arms, not pleased with the situation whatsoever.

"It can wait."

"You said it was urgent."

"You're not in any condition to hear about it."

Oriana stopped her cutting motion, but still wouldn't look Zora in the eyes while speaking.

"I said I was fine."

"I'll tell you tomorrow."

Not bothered enough to answer, Oriana picked up the pace while cooking. Zora observed her silently, it was more awkward than he expected. The one year apart was taking a toll on them. He still remembers how they would both bite each other's ass all the time . The bickering was fun to him, even if he would never admit it.

"Can you give your mask a rest?" Oriana asked suddenly, her back still turned to him. "You're making them uncomfortable."

"I don't want to." Zora answered.

Oriana sighed, seeing how her body became tense, Zora walked to her side on the stove, now leaning on the kitchen counter.

"Why are you mad?"

Oriana ignored him, stirring away her feelings, making Zora cringe at her brute force.

"It's not the vegetables' fault, you know?" Zora's irony only made it worse. Now he was the one sighing. He really was going to do this now, huh? "Look at me. Oriana, c'mon."

Zora grabbed her shoulder gently, turning her body to his. Reluctantly, Oriana looked up to those piercing blue eyes..

"Just tell me what's going on in the Clover Kingdom." Oriana insisted.

If it wasn't for the tragic look in her eyes, he would've told her.

"At least take off that mask!" Oriana yelled.

"No and no."

"What the hell is your problem? You can't just walk in here with that thing on anyways," Oriana pointed to both his mask and his robe. "You're calling attention to yourself. Besides, there's nothing for you to prove here." she bursted.

Before, Oriana wasn't even looking in his direction, but now she wouldn't let her gaze fall from his, waiting for Zora to waver. None of them was letting go.

"Let's make a deal."

"What?" Oriana furrowed her brows.

"You rest today and I'll tell you the message tomorrow, in exchange, I'll take off the mask so I don't scare your little friends."

Zora knew this was not what she wanted. Knowing Oriana, she would probably head out to the Clover Kingdom as soon as she knew what was happening. However, he noticed just how drained she looked. As great of a mage as she is, Oriana would be no good in her condition. He was actually surprised by her compliance to his suggestion. Leaving himself in an unpleasant situation as well.

'What an annoyance.'

He thought before taking off his mask. It wasn't a complicated system, but secure enough so it wouldn't fall, ever. With his face and shoulders uncovered he felt vulnerable, but there was some amenity in the fact that it was Oriana in front of him. It takes him back to the first time he revealed his face to Oriana, she didn't have any kind of stupid reaction. All she did was cup his face and take a full mental picture before he decided to put it on again, hiding his features.

"Put a shirt on, you pervert." Oriana said.

He couldn't argue, now he was fully exposed from the waist up, making him feel even more vulnerable. Zora didn't say anything, waiting for Oriana to catch up on the situation.

"You didn't bring any other clothes, did you?"

"Nope."

"Figures…" she murmured before leaving the kitchen and the food in the stove cooking.

Zora didn't expect to waste more than a few hours trying to find Oriana, a day max. Her iminent mana was easy to trace for him, so he didn't bother bringing anything besides his broom and the clothes that were already on him. While waiting, he would peek at the pots on the stove, the scent was familiar, almost smelled like Charmy's cooking,but not quite.

"Here, this should fit you."

Oriana threw a grey sweater in his direction and he catched it with ease. With some hesitation, he dropped his mask nearby and held the sweater in front of him before putting it on. She was right, it was a good fit.

"This is yours?" he didn't need to ask, as it had her nostalgic scent.

"Yup. Bought it in the man's section for a really good price." was Oriana… bragging? "It's super comfortable, right?"

"Hm, sure."

\-----

The night wasn't as odd as Oriana was expecting it to be. Even if she wasn't in the mood to talk, Daichi's interest in the three mages powers was rather adorable. Sugawara showed off his grimoire to his best friend and Zora showed his after Oriana insisted on it and even explained his powers to him willingly. Oriana was surprised by Zora's good mood, she would think he would be all sour after laying off the mask, but it had the contrary result.

It was late by the time Daichi's parents called him home. Sugawara made his cue with Daichi. And then it hit Oriana. Zora had no place to stay in Miyagi. As he was laying on the floor watching some program on the TV with a bowl of chips in front of him, Oriana tried to make him a makeshift bed with blankets and sheets, she also had an extra pillow for when Suga or Daichi slept over. He thanked her for the effort in his own way of speaking, which sounded more rude than anything else.

Lying on her own bed upstairs, Oriana was still wide awake, even if her body begged for some rest, her mind was rushing from thought to thought. Zora didn't change at all, if anything, he got stronger. Earlier in the kitchen, she was stopping herself from diving into those blue eyes. Oriana couldn't afford to do that anymore. She feared she might have been the one who didn't change at all. Did Zora notice any difference? If the rest of the Black Bulls saw her now, would they notice any difference? She can't see anything that might've been different in her. Oriana knew she was a coward and this aspect in her didn't change at all.

Keeping herself from drowning in her own self-awareness, she tried to guess what could be so important that they sent Zora of all people to deliver her a message. It's urgent, but too much for Oriana to handle, at least in Zora's opinion. Then she remembered a conversation she had with Suga a few days ago. How he felt an ominous energy coming from the north. She was now convinced it had to be about that energy. These two episodes were connected, she was sure. If there was such a threat in the Clover Kingdom, if Zora came all this way to inform her of it, that means he wasn't there with just a message.

\-----

The morning after, Oriana woke up nauseous. It was a wednesday, she had classes, but other priorities had come. And there was absolutely no way she would leave Zora alone in her house or bring him with her anywhere. That man is suspicious and has a provoking look in his eyes that would cause nothing but trouble.

Oriana sent Daichi a message she would be skipping today, so he didn't worry. It was unusual for Oriana to skip, but this was an unusual situation to be in. Heading downstairs, she found Zora in the exact same position as last night, but this time further away from the TV, in the makeshift bed she had made him. Oriana wasn't surprised at all by how quick he got the hang of the remote. She would join him, but only with a cup of coffee in hand. It was not possible to tolerate Zora without caffeine. So she did her normal routine, after getting her coffee, she headed over to the porch in the living room. Clearing her throat to catch the red head's attention, she signaled him to follow her. Sitting on the edge of the porch, she waited for Zora.

"Are you feeling better now?" Zora asked.

"Yep. You can tell me. I'm sure I can handle it."

Zora explained the recent main events. Asta's trial, the massacre in the Diamond's Kingdom, the presence of a new demon and the war that was approaching.

"We've been training our asses off with the Heart Kingdom," Zora continued. "We are using this alliance to everyone's benefit. We need as many mages in the zero level as possible."

"Zero being the highest level." Oriana assumed.

"Right." Zora shifted his position, now it was the hard part. "We need your magic to fight the demon."

Oriana clenched her fists around her mug. She knew it was coming, but she still hoped she didn't hear those words.

"The Black Bulls need you more than ever. That was the message Captain gave me for you."

Her character hadn't changed at all, she just realized. Her hands were shaking from the strength she was putting in them. Her whole body was shaking from her very bone. There it was, her destiny calling her name once again, but her dark history pursues her and doesn't let her see the world with the same clarity she once had. Years ago, there was no way she would back out if it was destiny calling, but now she is just guessing her way through life. Her dreams weren't what she was expecting, it was so painful. It burned her from the inside out, because at her back bone, she still wanted to fight to protect those who she loved, but she was terrified. Then, like a new realization, all the things she thought she forgot about being a mage, they returned to her. To protect. She's been saying that to herself and others. That the Magical Knights protect the innocent and the people they love. Oriana was no different, she fought with her friends in mind always. Their faces came up in her mind, one by one. All of her Black Bulls family and new faces joined in. Daichi, Sugawara, the Karasuno Volleyball team. It's for them.

Oriana drops her shoulders and finally turns to Zora.

"I'm going back." Oriana said. "I want to go home."

The morning sun reflected in her beautiful smile. The traces in her face looked relieved, her smile was genuine, but tears welled in her eyes.

"What are you even crying for?" Zora asked.

"I remember why I fight." Oriana couldn't stop the tears from falling. "I fight because I love you guys."

Zora looked surprised, but soon he was smiling too. By instinct, he drove his hand to Oriana's head and left it there.

"Seriously…" Zora scoffed. "What about that friend of yours? The one with flora magic, he might be useful."

"I can talk with him, but I make no promises." Oriana said, wiping away her tears.

The clouds cleared in her mind. The sun would shine bright, warming up the last few colder days. With her mind made up, Oriana doesn't have much time before leaving.

\-----

Against her own wishes, Oriana had to leave the house. After classes were over, she changed out of her pajamas and ran to Karasuno High, hopefully to catch Daichi and Sugawara on their way home. She wishes she had time to talk to both of them separately, but she had to leave that same day. Enough time had been wasted and she knew how rigid some of the captains could be. She could already feel the cold stares. After all, she was late for the party-but more importantly, she pretended her own death. There would be no way to escape from that.

Their classes had ended fifteen minutes before Oriana arrived at the road they always took to go home. There was a possibility they already headed home by now, but she was sure she could catch them somehow. In the crossroads where they would split up to go home, Oriana searched for the Karasuno uniform to no avail. Where to go first? Daichi or Suga? There was no time for both.

"Oriana?" the voice she was hoping for called for her.

Although only Daichi was there accompanied by Asahi and Kiyoko. No sign of Suga.

"Good, I still caught you." Oriana exhaled. "Isn't Suga with you?"

"He didn't come to class today. He was tired from yesterday." Daichi explained.

Oriana nodded. It was only natural to be tired after using magic and having no way to replenish it. Then, she remembered. Both Asahi and Kiyoko were there, they both saw Oriana and Suga using magic. She would expect weird glances, distancing from her, but they acted like their normal selves.

"We already know everything." Asahi smiled fondly, catching Oriana staring.

"And you're not… scared?"

"Not at all! We thought it was really cool. We just wished you had told us earlier." Asahi laughed, scratching the nape of his neck.

Looking in Kiyoko's direction, she didn't say anything, but nodded reassuringly.

"Thank you." Oriana dropped her shoulders. "And sorry. I didn't know how to tell you guys about it."

Oriana would miss everyone in Karasuno and their individualities. Her heart broke a little by the thought of never seeing them again and there wasn't even time for a real farewell. Once again, Oriana would just disappear. Not for everyone though, to Daichi at least, she would have to say something. Grabbing his hand and a sad look in her eyes,

"I have to steal him from you for a bit."

"Sure thing." Asahi smiled.

"Good-bye, guys." Kiyoko and Asahi said in unison.

"See you around!" Oriana said, knowing she might never see them again. "Let me walk you home for a change." she joked.

"How could I say no to that?" Daichi smiled, kissing her cheek.

Tragic endings was something Oriana did not need. With this in mind, she would do anything in her power to avoid another one. Starting with this very moment.

"Daichi," Oriana called. The boy gripped her hand looking at her. "I have to go back."

"Go back? Oh."

"There's a new threat and the Black Bulls need me."

"Is it...dangerous?"

"Everything about being a Magic Knight is dangerous, but we do it to protect others." Oriana reminded both Daichi and herself.

The wind brought the last leaves of early winter. Something in Oriana's eyes bothered Daichi. Something tells him their time is up.

"We don't know much about this new threat, only that there's another demon involved. The last time we faced a demon, it took everything we had to defeat it." Oriana continued. "This time we have an alliance with another kingdom, they will be helping us with training and evolving our magic to new levels. Even so,-" she was interrupted.

"You already made up your mind, right?" Daichi stopped in his tracks.

"Yes. They need me. My family asked me to help them. I'm not turning my back on them. Not anymore." Oriana's voice modulates. She's been beating around the bush, however, Daichi could hear the confidence in her voice. It was definitive.

"But you'll be back. Right?" Daichi's voice quavers.

"Actually, there is something you should know in case I don't come back." Oriana's voice lowers, only for him to hear.

They have come a long way from when they begane. Oriana was able to be vulnerable thanks to him and she gave Daichi new found confidence. Right now, Oriana couldn't assure they would see each other ever again.

"I love you, Daichi. You've made me really happy."


	7. Club Idiot

The weather became chillier for Daichi. His room was as cold as ice. No matter how many layers of clothing he put on, his fingers still felt numb while holding his pencil.

It's like an avalanche overcame his house, or maybe it was him only. Maybe Oriana was to blame for the icy weather. Ever since that strange guy appeared with the creepy mask and that black robe, he knew his chances of keeping Oriana to himself were slim.

'Shit, why is it so cold.'

Daichi had to do something about this cold, something that could distract him, but she was gone forever and he might never even recover. Would she ever recover? Her words were only in case she couldn't come back, but they felt like final words to Daichi. They crashed into his heart like a wave of ice. He wondered if she would miss him while she was gone. Would it be forever? Was there no way she could visit him? Would she even… survive to do so?

The first time he saw her talking with Suga outside the volleyball club gym, he knew she was something special. Maybe it was the colour of her eyes, maybe it was the way she laughed. Oriana came into his life so casually and managed to leave such a big scar on his heart. He had been hoaxed and confused from the start, but even so, he loved her.

Daichi got up from his homework to turn on the heater. It has to be something he could do about the cold.

There was nothing he could do though, because it was his heart that was freezing.

\-----

Unable to run back home, Oriana dragged her feet on the road. She knew it was the right thing to do, to break up with Daichi, to spare him from any more pain.

As soon as she got inside of her house, she wrapped her arms around herself and let the back slide down the door. It was like a drowning sensation and this time there was no hand reaching out to her. She was the one who did it, she would die for him, she was going to if she had to. She could never promise to come back, it was war and there was no way to know what was going to happen. Who even knew she had the guts to break up with Daichi face to face.

"What are you even doing?"

Oriana heard the disembodied voice, but didn't look up for a while.

"Hey, bean. Are you feeling okay?" the voice persisted.

"Yeah." Oriana sighed, pulling herself up. "I took too long. We lost the boat, didn't we?"

"What were you even doing? You said it would be quick."

"Well, it wasn't." she said.

Although Zora's questions weren't over yet.

"What about your friend, is he coming?"

"I couldn't talk to him, but I can leave a message." her voice became weaker as she spoke. "He can meet us there if he wants."

Oriana felt Zora's presence following her to the living room. He sat across from her, leaning his elbows on the table while she pretended to be interested in the program on the TV.

"Did you even tell anyone you're leaving?"

"I'm leaving them a letter."

"Don't do that."

"What?" Oriana glanced sideways in his direction.

"Don't leave letters. It sucked when you did that." he reprimanded, his eyes narrowed at the TV screen.

Oriana remembers the day she wrote two separate letters. Those two letters were not to end friendships, but to reassure them. A letter was left for the Black Bulls, clarifying why she left and asking to announce her death to the other squads. The second one was for Zora only, although with different words, the intent was the same as her last conversation with Daichi. The Black Bulls were the family she chose, as much as she wanted to leave, she didn't want to leave without an explanation. Those were always hard to do in person, so she wrote letters instead and maybe, one day, if she saw them again, she would have the chance to admit how much she missed them. That moment approached at a fast rate.

"Were you mad about the letter?"

"Furious." Zora answered honestly. "I deemed you a coward for running away. Didn't even tell me…"

Oriana bit the inside of her cheek, turning her glance back to the television.

"But I got over it. After that, I came to understand why." he continued.

"I explained better in the letter." Oriana said.

"I wish I had read it. It went directly to the trash." his tone seemed like he just delivered a joke, but he was dead serious.

"You didn't even read it? You suck."

"The shrimp took out the trash by the time I regretted it." Zora paused. "But you can tell me what was written on it."

"I don't remember." Oriana spitted out.

"Are you lying to me?"

"I'm not telling you." she corrected. "It's embarrassing. It doesn't even matter anymore."

"It doesn't matter, huh?" Zora murmured.

Oriana felt a pull in her chest after saying those words. She wouldn't take it back, but she wished she hadn't phrase it that way.

"For what counts, I'm sorry I didn't have anything to say that night." Oriana said, hoping this would make up for what she said before.

Oriana reminisced about the night after they defeated the demon and made amends with the elves. She didn't even wait to recover from her injuries, she took the last boat after writing the letters and left the Clover Kingdom, with an aching body and haunted heart. She had the chance to have a proper farewell with Zora, between leaving her letters and catching the boat, but she had nothing to say and left him standing in the hallway of headquarters.

With a wave of sorrowful memories, her eyes were clouded by everything she saw.

\-----

The day after, Oriana missed her classes once again, but by the time the club activities started, she waited for the volleyball club in the gym entrance wearing her Karasuno uniform one last time. Before leaving the house, Zora had to make his little comment.

'You look ridiculous', he said

Remembering it made Oriana shift her weight to one leg and cross her arms. Zora was a big asshole when he wanted to be. This might be the last time they would see her and she wanted them to remember exactly like this. Their old highschool friend.

When the boys arrived, they were confused at first, but she asked them to hear her out. Conjoining all courage left in her, looking at Daichi for some reassurance and getting none, she was still able to muster the words she wanted to say.

"I'm leaving Karasuno High.''

At her first announcement, some of the boys started shouting questions, only to be reprimanded by Suga.

"I believe Daichi already told all of you that I'm not from here. My home is the Clover Kingdom, in the north. The family I left behind, they need me now. I have to help them." Oriana continued.

"But-But you can still come back here! You don't have to leave forever." Hinata blurted.

"That's the thing. I can't promise I'll be back. It's a dangerous mission, anything could happen." Oriana tried her best to not let her voice tremble, but they could see her shaking hands.

"No way…" Tanaka mumbled.

"Listen, Oriana, I don't really understand anything about mages or what is it that you guys do in the north." Nishinoya started. "But you shouldn't have to be put in danger like this. Do you really have to?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't." these words uplifted some of the long faces around Oriana. "However, if I have to choose between being in danger for my family or hide in the safety of my cowardice. I choose my family. Always." even if her eyes were filled with tears, her voice was assertive. "It hasn't always been like this, I've made many mistakes, but not anymore."

"We're gonna miss you, kid." coach Ukai showed up from behind the group, a little later than usual, but just in time for Oriana's farewell. "That's a very respectable attitude. Not everyone would have the courage to leave the comfort of their current lives for other people."

Suddenly, Oriana felt arms around her and was surprised to see Yachi bawling her eyes out into Oriana's shirt.

"I'm really gonna miss you." Yachi cried.

In a matter of seconds, more arms were surrounding her in a group hug. She couldn't stop her tears anymore as they ran down her cheeks.

"Thank you for being my Miyagi family, you guys," Oriana said. "One day, if I ever get to see you again, I'll tell you all about being a mage."

"We will hold you on to that!" Hinata shouted by her side, filling the collar of his own shirt with tears.

Taking a step back, Oriana cleaned her tears,

"There's one more thing. Suga, we could really use a mage with your level of magic, I'm sure your family is waiting for you too." Oriana held out her hand, waiting for Suga to grab it.

When they first met, Sugawara told Oriana about her family in the Coral Peacocks and every now and again, he would remember small stories from their adventures and how much he admired her captain, even asleep half of the time, Captain Dorothy was one of the strongest mages alive, her dream magic unbeatable to most.

Sugawara looked at the expectating faces around him. Oriana knew it was a lot to ask, he has lived in Miyagi for longer than she had, so she could imagine how hard it could be for her friend. However, Oriana also realized he held his peers in the Coral Peacocks close to heart.

"I'll do my best." Suga promised, holding Oriana's hand.

Then, Sugawara was also treated to a group hug from the Karasuno team.

"Yo, Kageyama!" Suga called. "I'm leaving this team to you."

"Yes, sir. I won't let you down." Kageyama bowed slightly to his older teammate. The torch as the official setter of the Karasuno team had been passed down.

As time was running out and as much as Oriana hated to rush these moments, they had to leave. After a few individual good-byes, it truly was time to go. Sugawara and Oriana ran down the hill to meet with Zora in Oriana's house, with the winds of tomorrow hitting their faces, their tears flew into the air.

"We are idiots for leaving something so good as this, aren't we?" Suga asked jokingly, laughing.

"You're an idiot. I'm an idiot. We're the co-presidents of Club Idiot."


	8. The Clover Kingdom

The evening breeze kept Oriana from leaving her warm seat in the boat. Sugawara invited her to sea-sighting, but Oriana was content with the view from her window. The calm waves drifted her mind. The glimmers of light in the blue sea brought back memories she held dear, but considered them forgotten. It's coming all back to her in mists of nostalgia. She would be lying if she said she didn't miss using her magic. The same magic she once considered a curse, she would find the joy on it once again.

Oriana hoped she could see her Miyagi friends when things were better. When peace reigns once again, she will be able to go back. Even if she didn't stay that long in Miyagi, a bond is never lost. That bond would bring her back and allow her to hold onto memories.

"I was against bringing you back." Zora's voice boasted, snapping Oriana into reality.

Glancing at him, Oriana spotted him in Suga's seat right beside her.

"Am I supposed to appreciate that?" Oriana grunted.

"If you ran away, it means you didn't want to be a magic knight anymore, am I right?" Zora brings his hands to rest under his head. "Why bother to come and get you to do a job you don't want to do? That's what I thought."

Having no response from Oriana, Zora continued,

"Of course, that was before I found out more about the enemy. We really need stronger mages and you are one of those who is likely to reach level 0. You have that kind of potential."

"Are you praising me?" Oriana scoffed.

This was one of those very, extremely, stupidly rare moments that Zora wasn't reprimanding her, but the contrary.

"Yeah, whatever." Zora boasted. "I didn't even think I could convince you to come back."

"Why is that?"

"I'm better at belittling royals than I am at being a messenger boy.." Zora bragged. "I told the old man to get Finral or Vanessa to do it instead."

Little did Zora know that Finral or Vanessa would have failed to bring Oriana back to the Clover Kingdom. He was the only one for the job and captain Yami recognised that.

Turning her attention to the small window, Oriana noticed it just as it was coming into view. In the distance she could see a very small portion of land, but immediately recognised it as the north continent. So close to home, her heart skipped a beat. Up until this very second, she didn't even know what to do once she was back. She had no clue what awaited her. In a few minutes, they would be announcing their arrival to the Clover Kingdom port. Biting the inside of cheek, Oriana avoided the noticeable trembling of her fingers as she kept one hand in the pocket of her jacket and the other clutched into a tight fist holding her suitcase.

However, upon setting foot in the magical north, the welcoming mana made Oriana drop her shoulders. She could feel the mana replenishing inside of her, she could feel the natural mana around her, even if it was so sparse in that area. As she breathed deep, taking all the oxygen her lungs could take, Oriana felt refreshed, her senses were sharpened and she could feel the powerful mana inside her. Turning to Sugawara, he was also with a delighted look on his face.

"I know, I feel it too." Sugawara said, smiling at Oriana.

Oriana smiled too, a weak and sad smile, but she was smiling to Sugawara nonetheless.

"Is it time to go?" Oriana asked.

Sugawara embraced Oriana in a hug. Smelling the Miyagi scent in her friend, the embrace felt like it would be the last for a while. Oriana could not remember a day in Miyagi when she wasn't with Sugawara. Ever since she arrived in the unknown city, Suga was the one who helped her fit in with welcoming arms. As tears swelled Oriana's eyes, Sugawara held her head in his shoulder,

"Don't be a stranger, okay?" Suga spoke softly.

Oriana agreed with a nod, letting Suga leave her arms as they parted ways. Cleaning her tears, Oriana turned to Zora who was leaning on a nearby tree with crossed arms. The first thing he did once the arrival to the Clover Kingdom was announced was to retrieve his mask and robe from Oriana's suitcase and give back the lended grey sweater. The sun was close to the shore line and the moon was already visible as they made their way back to the Black Bulls headquarters together.

"It sucks to walk." Zora spoke.

At that time, it stroke her,

"What happened to your broom?"

"It's back in your place. I forgot about it."

Oriana tried to hide her scoff, turning her face the other way. It was funny to her how Zora's priorities were his mask only. She was surprised he remembered to bring his robe with him.

"Don't laugh at me. Where is your broom, huh?" Zora scolded.

"In my room in the Black Bulls headquarters." Oriana said. "There was no way I would fly all the way to the south."

A brand new start was what Oriana was hoping for, a new chance to be better, but now she wondered if her broom was actually still in her old room, or if the room still belonged to her at all.

"I mean, at least I left it there." Oriana murmured.

"It's still there." Zora spoke. "Henry locked your room and only allowed Asta to go in and keep it clean in case you came back."

Oriana dropped her shoulders, mustering up the courage to ask the risky question in her head.

"Does that mean…." Oriana started.

"There is no way you could fuck it up even more, so don't worry about it." Zora interrupted, like he knew exactly what Oriana was going to ask. "Everyone misses you and they will be happy to see you. You just have to come and stay."

Oriana fought the sting in her eyes, with no words to say. They headed ahead through the evening deem light. It was a long way back and a lot of catching up to do. Zora kept it plain and simple, not much had changed whatsoever, but Oriana was eager to see it with her own eyes, to feel it with her own heart. Her Black Bulls family.  
Oriana and Zora arrived at the Black Bulls headquarters by nightfall. In the dark forest surrounding the building, Oriana could already smell Charmy's delicious food and the warm heat from a bonfire that was lit outside. Right in the courtyard, Oriana was welcomed by the beautiful scene of familiar faces lit by the bonfire, chatting and laughing together. She could hear Magna and Luck arguing for a piece of meat, Asta's loud shouts and Vanessa was trying to get Gauche to share a drink with her. Everything was exactly as she had left it.

"Are you coming or what?" Zora asked, in the brims of the bonfire light.

Oriana wished she could just stay there for a little while longer, just observing, but her longing expression and eager heart wished for more.

"C'mon, let's go." Zora insisted, giving Oriana a gentle push.

Suddenly, they weren't in the shadows anymore, but surrounded by the same warm heat as everyone else. What indescriptible the sensation of being so close to them once again. Then, all the attention turned to them, to Oriana specifically. In the few seconds of silence, Oriana took a deep breath.

"Oriana!" some screamed in unison.

Vanessa was the first to come to Oriana and immediately enveloping her in a nostalgic and sluggish embrace, following pursuit was Noelle and Charmy. Not after long, the whole squad was surrounding her and that's when she held Vanessa close to her and bursted into tears.

"I'm home!" Oriana shouted as loud as she could.

\-----

As weeks went by, the days got busier. Between training to face the demon in the Spade Kingdom and the ordinary missions of Magic Knights, there was barely any time for anything else. This was no time for breaks and the Black Bulls would be scolded either by Yami or Mereoleona if they were caught slacking off anyways.

Oriana was expecting cold looks upon her arrival to the capital, but instead, she was a nice surprise for most of the mages that thought her dead. Mereoleona's reprimands and Captain Nozel cold glances aside, Oriana and Sugawara were well received and started working and training immediately as they were behind in comparison with everyone else. Within four days of intense training, Oriana managed to get her full power back. All she had to do now, was to surpass her previous limits and reach level zero. Which is easier said than done.

Oriana thought she forgot how to be a mage, but it was like riding a bicycle. You never forget it. Her relationship with her squadmates didn't change whatsoever, as they were the same chaotic squad they always were. As for her relationship with Zora, it eventually started from the beginning, following step after step in that complicated ladder full of twists and turns has it has always been between them.

Although, as matters started to settle once again, Oriana woke up one day to receive terrible news. If things start to seem too good to be true, it's because they really are.

In that cold morning, Yami requested Oriana to accompany him and Finral to the Royal Capital. Captain received a notice earlier to bring Oriana along to the Magic Knights headquarters to speak to the Wizard King's assistant She was surprised by this, she returned almost three months ago, so why would she be called now? That Oriana could remember, she hadn't caused any trouble.

With Finral's spatial magic, it was a matter of seconds until they stepped foot in the Royal Capital. The lively streets weren't enough to distract Oriana from wondering what the meeting could be about. When the Wizard King summons a specific mage, it normally means trouble. However, something else did catch her eye. In the corner of her vision, headed the same direction as her group, were a trio of mages wearing pink robes that Oriana recognized as being the Coral Peacocks. One of them had very familiar fluffy grey hair and immediately Oriana forgot all about the meeting with the Wizard King's assistant.

"Suga!" Oriana's voice was booming, surprising Yami and Finral as she ran off.

"Where is she going?" Finral wondered under his breath.

Sugawara turned to the crowd upon spotting Oriana, a large smile grew on his face as he opened his arms to receive his friend.

"You're here too?" Suga asked with excitement in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm headed for the Magic Knights Headquarters."

"Really? Me too." Suga pointed to himself.

"You must be the other mage from the Coral Peacocks Julius summoned." Yami approached them with his intimidating presence.

Immediately Oriana felt Suga's hands squeezing her arms as he nodded.

"Let's get this over with then." Yami said, biting on his cigarette. "What a bother."

The group of black and pink robes followed together to the headquarters, but Sugawara and Oriana hanged behind so they could talk freely.

"Is that your captain?" Suga whispered to Oriana.

"Yes, I spoke about him before."

"You did, only you forgot to mention he is really scary."

"He can be intimidating for sure, but you get used to it. Besides, he takes good care of us."

As their animated conversation continued, their peers kept silent, not having anything to say to each other. However, taking a few glances at the two friends who were reunited for the first time ever since arriving in the Clover Kingdom, smiling fondly at them. Even if they hadn't noticed themselves, Oriana and Sugawara were the ones that changed to most, and seeing them excitedly chatting, made their squad mates relieved.

They had forgotten just how beautiful the Clover Kingdom was and there was a lot of catching up to do, but that had to wait for later, as they arrived at the meeting room and Marx Francois awaited for them on the other side of the door.


	9. Just go

The group was invited to the Wizard King office, although, instead of the Wizard King himself, inside they found a man Oriana had seen before, but couldn't remember his name. He had very distinguished hair...

"Yo, mushroom head," Yami took a long drag from his cigarette. "I hope this is important."

"My name is Marx!" the man shouted, but quickly composed himself. "I'm sorry for having you come all the way to the Headquarters, but the matter is rather urgent."

Marx observed the faces around him, probably to make sure everyone was listening.

"Unfortunately, there is a new threat. Even more unfortunate is that it escaped to the south and is endangering innocent, defenseless people," Marx explained. "The Magic Embassy of Japan contacted us, because there were reports of dark mana in their country, specifically, in the Miyagi Prefecture."

Oriana's heart skipped a beat. She just left the Miyagi Prefecture, how could it be?

"Do you know anything about the enemy?" one of the Coral Peacocks inquired.

"They haven't been able to identify the culprit, yet, but from what they have gathered, this new foe feeds off the negative feelings and energy from others and lately their mana has been growing stronger with every passing week. We have no idea of what their intentions are or if they are stable, but the matter has grown past their capabilities." Marx elaborated on the matter, then turned to Oriana and Suga, standing side by side. "Koshi Sugawara and Oriana White. The two of you lived in that area for the last year, correct?"

Unable to give a verbal answer, both of them nodded their heads.

"The Wizard King and I already read your reports of the accidents in that mean time. None of them seemed connected to this case." Marx spoke. "Since the two of you are familiar with the area, the Wizard King would like to ask you to return and investigate for how long necessary. Of course, the King is aware the both of you are preparing for the upcoming war with the new demon and this will affect your training. This is why it is up to you to decide if you want to go back to Japan and take the matters into your hands or if you'd rather stay and keep training. In case you choose the latter, another team will be sent."

"I don't understand…" Oriana was breathing heavily. "We just- we just left there and everything was fine. The Miyagi Prefecture is a small and happy town... where did this come from?"

"Something must have triggered the dark energy for this mage to feed on." Finral mumbled under his breath.

"They say heartbreak really fucks with you." Yami adds while biting his cigarette.

With wide open eyes, Oriana stared at something that wasn't there. Daichi. The Karasuno team. When Sugawara looked at Oriana, she didn't seem to be breathing. Sugawara himself was pale and his hands felt colder than ever.

'Did we do this to them?'

\-----

Given the rest of the day off, Oriana was not sure what to do with herself. For the first time in her life, she wasn't able to make a decision on the spot with her usual confidence. The Wizard King was kind enough to give her and Sugawara time to think. In about a week they would have to go back and report their decision, in case they said no, the Wizard King would just assign another team to go to Miyagi.

However, Oriana just arrived in the Clover Kingdom after a whole year. She had the determination to train alongside her squadmates and had a heat inside her that filled her with the will to fight, but if her Miyagi friends were in danger and if there was the slightest chance it might be her fault, she couldn't just do nothing about it. It was her theory that her and Suga's departure might have something to do with all this. She left not even two months ago and she might be coming back already. The travel time to Japan, investigating the occurrence, finding the culprit and a probable fight to stop whatever their intentions might be. This could take months of training she couldn't afford to miss.

Stumbling in her feet while passing in her room, she wondered what Suga might do. He seemed just as lost as Oriana. Then, her lungs seemed incapable of taking any sort of air. It was the feeling of drowning again. When things finally seemed okay, something had to happen and strangle her when she is already barely able to breathe normally. That knot in her throat, it seemed to never leave her alone. She had to get it under control, but her panicking heart started pounding inside her chest.

The open to her room suddenly opens and a familiar voice boasts in her ears.

"Hey, bean! If you're free come train with me! There is no time for you to slack off!"

Zora is as nagging as ever and was using his stentorian voice, making Oriana stop in her tracks. With her back turned to the door, she cleared her throat and put on a smile before replying,

"I know, I know."

"What's wrong with your face?" Zora asked puzzled.

"It's just my face." Oriana's voice had a brittle in it that Zora caught on to.

Gripping her shoulder, Zora stopped her from leaving the room. Oriana couldn't hold in her emotions any longer. Tears started to fill her eyes and fall into her clothes. Moving carefully, Oriana turned to Zora and wrapped him in her arms, crying into his chest. He sighed, but put a hand on the top of her hand and brought her body closer to his.

"Why are you crying? Aren't you happy to be with me?" Zora's voice was lowered for Oriana only.

Even though Oriana knew she shouldn't be holding him too close, she couldn't help it in her moments of weakness. She might have to go back to Miyagi once again, leaving Zora with prospects of his imagination of what might be like to have Oriana close like this all the time.

Oriana felt her body being dragged away from the door frame, almost making her stumble, and heard the door being shut closed. When she couldn't feel Zora's hands anymore, she looked up to his face with blurry eyes. Zora took his mask off and then dropped it on Oriana's desk that was within reach distance. Without a single word, Zora grabbed Oriana's arms and put them around his own shoulders. Before she knew it, Oriana couldn't feel the floor under her feet anymore and was being laid out sideways on her bed with Zora holding her close to him.

With his lips attached to the top of Oriana's head, Zora said,

"Only this once, let's skip the training."

After a moment, Oriana's breathing eventually became stable, with tears drying on her face. With all the overwhelm around her, at least this never felt wrong. Zora being the hand that reaches out to her, Oriana was the light that brought him to shore.

"I am happy." Oriana whispers before drifting off.

\-----

In the middle of the night Zora woke up in the same position in Oriana's bed. Her steady breathing against his skin and the stillness of her body told Zora she was still sleeping profoundly and probably would until the morning, even if he couldn't really see her face clearly. There was barely a sheen of light from the moon.

Zora didn't think he would ever be beside Oriana again. He knew how stubborn she could be and when she left, he was sure he would never see her again. The sky itself fell when he heard the news, and rage ran wild inside him for letting himself be fooled like that. Who knew, commoners can be as merciless and cold as nobles and royals. To prove that theory, he crumpled the letter Oriana left him and trashed it before reading it. However, a year is a long time.

Shifting carefully, Zora put Oriana and himself under the sheets. Maneuvering in the dark, he tried his best not to wake her up. His freezing skin welcomed the protection of the fabric and the heat coming from Oriana by his side.

Even though he was so sure he would never see her again, a small part of him was thriving on that wish. A year later, their bond and love was not lost. It wasn't too late.

\-----

The fierce wind made Oriana's black robe flutter in every direction as she and Zora made their way for today's mission. Clouds painted the bright blue sky every so often and greenery covered the ground of the forest below them. Oriana had secured her hair with an elastic on the top of her head, but her strands were so long that they still glued to her lips or covered her view. It was way too early to deal with Captain Yami's obnoxious request.

A priest had come directly to the Black Bulls headquarters that morning in a panic. A giant creature had taken over his house and he asked for help to retrieve his home from the beast. Bad timing was to blame, because Zora and Oriana arrived first to the main hall and just in time for Yami to assign them the mission. They didn't really have a choice or a saying on the matter, no one is to contradict Captain Yami's bad mood. It should provide them some battle training at least.

It took them awhile to find the priest's house in the middle of the trees and greenery, but Oriana spotted a lovely brick cottage in an open area and a lovely garden nearby. It had to be it.

"Did he even say what kind of beast it was?" Zora asked, jumping from his broom.

"The priest said he didn't manage to take a look at it. Only that it was huge and tried to eat him."

"Seriously…"

Taking a look around the house, nothing seemed suspicious. No noise from inside the house and they couldn't see anything weird from the windows.

"I'm going in." Oriana said, already feeling how irritable Zora was getting. "Maybe the priest just had a nightmare or something."

Zora clicked his tongue and crossed his arms in response.

Oriana opened her grimoire and turned the pages until she found the spell for her swords. Better safe than sorry. Opening the front door, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was a normal living room and the kitchen was clear too. If it was such a beast, she should have been able to see it by now. Although, just as she was turning to go back, she heard rattling inside the house and looked over her shoulder. Hissing right behind her was a gigantic serpent, with its eyes on her, ready to attack.

"Shit!" Oriana shouted, running outside.

"Huh?" Zora was peeking inside the house.

"Get out of the way!" as she yelled, she pushed Zora with her own body weight, making the both of them fall to the ground as the serpent jumped over them.

It's whole body had jumped out of the house and was now on the courtyard eyeing the duo.

"That's a really big ass serpent." Zora commented, snickering.

The serpent jumped again, opening its mouth. Oriana and Zora jumped out of the way, each to one side. The sheer force of the creature destroyed the entrance of the cottage. Unbothered, noticing it missed its target, the serpent turned to Oriana.

"Very well," Oriana said, getting rid of her swords and flipping the pages of her grimoire. "Bone Creation Magic: Morph Touch"

With this spell, long tendrils of bone came out of the nape of her neck, but before she had the chance to do anything else, the serpent jumped again in her direction.

"Velocity Rush"

In a blink of an eye, Oriana was in the air just over the serpent. Aware of how long the spell would last, Oriana knew she had to act quickly.

"Take this," Oriana shouted. "Blast Battler"

The tips of her tendrils lighten in a blue glow before blasting powerful bursts of mana towards the serpent. Although, these didn't seem to be doing much to the serpent as it hissed at her. Dodging another attack, Oriana noticed Zora on the side just observing the fight between her and the serpent with an amused look on his face and a hand on his hip.

"Are you having fun?" Oriana yelled at him.

"Yeah, sorry." Zora boasted, opening his grimoire and getting ready to draw a magic circle. "Your ability to distract me is unmatched!"

Snapping her head in his direction and ceasing her own atack, Oriana almost got swallowed whole by the serpent before evading.

"This is not the time to say things like that!" Oriana yelled. "You're impossible!"

"I'm ready!"

Looking down, Oriana recognized Zora's magic circle being drawn in the air. In one last evasive move, Oriana aimed all of her six tendrils towards the Zora. The magic circle in front of him engulfed the mana blast completely.

"Look here you ugly thing!" Zora boasted.

The serpent turned to him, seeing a prey completely open, it jumped in its direction. The serpent was too fast, the counter wouldn't be ready in time. Oriana deactivated her blasts and extended her tendrils to imprison the serpent seconds before it swallowed Zora. With Oriana holding the serpent in place, Zora had the chance to counter attack directly into the serpent's open mouth with twice or maybe thrice the power of Oriana's blast. Instantly, the serpent's body went limp in Oriana's bone tendrils. With the time she had left from her flying spell, Oriana made sure to drop the creature as far away from the priest's home as possible.

By the time they were coming back to the Black Bulls headquarters, Oriana's stomach was rumbling and she wondered if they would still be on time for breakfast.

"The priest should be pleased with our work, you think he might give us some sort of compensation?" Oriana asked.

"He better or I might kill him. And it better be food, I'm starving."

"Hopefully something Charmy can cook."

"Is there anything that woman can't cook? Or eat?" Zora snickered.

Suddenly, Oriana started to stare at the broom beside hers, annoyance filing her voice all of a sudden.

"Actually, if we get any reward, I'm keeping most of it. You barely did anything."

"Huh? What's up with that?"

"You were just standing there most of the time."

"I was appreciating the view." Zora hummed. "I might like you more than I had planned to."

His smirk made Oriana look away from him.

"Shut up. That's embarrassing."

"I know you like it!" Zora boasted.

Not a second passed before Oriana felt something landing in her head. Catching it between her finger and bringing it to eye level, a terrible stench filled her nose. Zora had just thrown a stink bug at her which Oriana got rid of immediately.

"You are such an asshole!"

As intolerable as this man was, Oriana would never admit to how fast her heart was beating inside of her chest. This might be the first time Zora openly admitted to having any feelings for Oriana whatsoever. Normally they would just behave like a married old couple, bicker and have some private moments. Although, ever since she came back to the Clover Kingdom, Zora has been more talkative and open towards her. On the other hand, Oriana feared that she didn't change whatsoever.

The dynamic inside the Black Bulls was the same as she remembered, but in the past few weeks, she had the chance to witness their individual growth. None of these people were the same as they were a year ago. They were stronger. However, as she looked in the mirror, Oriana thought of herself as weaker compared to them. Retrieving her usual blue, white and silver outfit, holding the Black Bulls robe close to her chest, she wondered if it was really enough to bring things back to normality. Was she any stronger than last time? Then she would snap herself back to reality, thinking how she was at it again and shaked all of her intrusive thoughts away.

That morning, at the Black Bulls base there was barely any time for breakfast before there was a loud roaring knock on the front door. Keeping her eyes on her plate, Oriana decided to ignore it as it might be another mission. Right now, nothing would come between her and Charmy's cooking. It seemed to exist a silent agreement around the table, as no one moved to open the door. The clinking of tableware being interrupted by the persistent knocking,

"Seriously? No one is going for the door?" Magna grunts.

Seeing no reaction, Magna put down his spoon and got up from his chair.

"I'm coming!" Magna shouted as the roaring knocks continued.

Oriana looked up from her plate, this situation seemed way too familiar for her taste.

"I said I'm coming, jeez!" Magna yelled again.

Before he could even get to the door, it jolted in his direction knocking him to the ground.

"Oh no, not again. Not during breakfast!" Finral cried.

An imposing figure marched in the Black Bulls base. The immense heat, the familiar mana, the red long Vermillion hair. All these clues were a call for trouble.

"There you are, you punks!" Mereoleona called. "You have nothing to do today, right? Then you are all coming with me!"

With no time to answer, claws made of magic fire grabbed the head of everyone present and pulled them from their seat.

"Oh c'mon let us eat!" Asta cried.

"Are we going to fight someone strong again?" Luck asked enthusiastically.

"It's not the vulcano again, is it?" Magna's voice was full of regret already.

"Wrong! Today I'm going to take you to a high class, Vermillion level training! You need it, you're growing weaker instead of stronger!" Mereoleona reprimanded.

"So mean..." Noelle commented.

"Especially you," Mereleona pulled Oriana to her eye level. "You are behind in all training. So you will be doing double the exercises as everyone else."

Oriana shrieked just from the thought.

"Please, Lady Mereoleona. Go easy on me." Oriana pleaded, grabbing the mana on her head, trying to get free from its grasp.

"I think that's fair." Zora boasted.

"Shut up!" Oriana yelled.

"Don't worry Oriana, I don't mind doing the exercises with you! Train me hard too Sisgoleon!"

"It's Mereoleona." the Vermillion roared.

"I already packed some lunches for the occasion!" Charmy chirped.

Without much of an option, the Black Bulls were dragged out of their base by the mighty Mereoleona Vermillion to the heating weather outside. It was only common sense not to defy her.

Oriana and the others followed Mereoleona thinking they were going to another sight with crazy levels of mana, but soon enough they arrived at the capital, which was unusual. Oriana then remembered the venue for the Magic Knights entrance exam, that would be a decent place to train. As the group followed Mereoleona's march, Oriana looked at her surroundings. They were becoming disturbingly familiar. She started to recognize the high tailoring stores, the restaurants. When a group of young kids ran past their group, Oriana realized those were the same streets she used to play as a kid with her sister before she became too sick to accompany her. Halting in her step, she looked ahead and there it was. The Clover Castle.

Her body froze, unable to move, Oriana tried to clench her fists to regain the control of her body, but she couldn't cease the trembling of her fingers. Her eyes were wide with terror when spotting the castle, high in the terrain. An alarm screeched inside her mind, taking a step behind Oriana thought of running in the other direction. If she caught Mereoleona distracted, maybe she could just run for it. Certainly she wouldn't miss one less Black Bull, there were so many. She took another step back. Anything but that place, she couldn't risk it.

"Hey, you! The one that's been playing hooky!" Mereoleona roared to the back of the group, but Oriana couldn't even hear her. "Don't get behind!"

Vanessa was the closest to Oriana, as the witch approached her friend in a daze, she spoke with a soft voice,

"Oriana? What's wrong?" Vanessa touched Oriana's hand, only to be slapped away. "Calm down, Oriana!"

Then, Zora intervened as well, gripping Oriana's shoulders, he called for her.

"Snap out of it!" Zora spoke.

Oriana couldn't hear his voice clearly, her eyes danced around his face unable to focus on one spot.

"Oriana, look into my eyes." Zora said. "Look at me."

Then she found them, those piercing blue eyes now searching for hers.

"Good, now breathe. Take a deep breathe, c'mon."

Following Zora's order, Oriana took as much oxygen as her lungs could take and let the air out.

"Maybe she could just skip this one time." Noelle suggested to Mereleona.

"Denied. If she is scared of something, she should just get over it!"

"I don't think that's how it works, Lady Mereoleona."

Dropping her shoulders, becoming aware of her surroundings, Oriana noticed a commotion that stopped in their tracks to observe her little episode. Zora took a step back from her, as Mereoleona approached her.

"Are you going back home crying?" the Vermillion asked, staring into Oriana's very soul. "Or are you going to stand up against whatever is scaring you?"

"I'm not running away, Lady Mereoleona." Oriana held Mereoleona's gaze when saying those words. After a few seconds, she had a content look on her face.

"Good call. Let's go." Mereoleona ordered. Then turned to Oriana again before heading ahead to the front of their group. "Your strongest muscle and worst enemy is your mind. Train it well and no fear will stop you." her voice almost a soft whisper.

Oriana nodded. Mereleona was right. The fear of her past will not stop her. The chains that hold her will not stop her.

'It's a big castle, it's almost impossible I'll be running into them.'

Oriana thought, walking with some hesitation on her step.

"Are you sure you are okay with this?" Vanessa whispered by her side. "You don't actually have to come if you don't feel comfortable."

"It's fine. I'll endure it." Oriana's words sounded confident, but her hands haven't stopped shaking.

Staying behind the group with Oriana, Zora slipped his hand into hers without saying a word. Oriana gently squeezed his hand and welcomed his warmth.

By the time the Clover Castle gates were opening, her hands weren't shaking anymore. In fact, they were now gripping Zora's hands, certain that nothing could go wrong.

In the main courtyard, in the space shared by the three Royal families, red robes of the Crimson Lions and silver and blue robes of the Silver Eagles filled Oriana's vision and she felt her hand getting almost crushed by Zora's thin fingers..

"Can't believe I got dragged to the midst of them royals. I knew I shouldn't have left the bed this morning."

While Zora was putting a fret and giving nasty looks to every royal looking their way, Oriana had a tense expression on her face looking directly ahead, to the Kira Estate.

'There's absolutely no way in hell. Right?'

"Stop harassing the royals, we have training to do." Oriana spoke.

"I see you're all better." Zora boasted, but didn't let go of Oriana's hand.

Being led by Mereoleona Vermillion, Fuegoleon Vermilion and Nozel Silva the three squads were divided into groups for separate exercises. Anyone with a black robe was sticking out like a sore thumb and there was some tension building up, especially with Zora around. Mereoleona had separated him from Oriana and left her older sibling to deal with Zora. Terrible idea to whoever you ask. Whatever Mereoleona's plan was, it wasn't working.

Oriana's head was filled with worry and it was difficult to concentrate on any of the targets in front of her. Worried her past would catch up to her and that Zora might actually commit a homicide that day, plus she was getting teased by Magna and Luck for barely getting a dent on her target.

"Don't get distracted by the red head! The target is in front of you, you know?!" Magna joked.

"You used to be stronger than this, Oriana!" Luck commented.

"You know what? Screw this." Oriana finally had enough. "Bone Creation Magic: Bone Swords"

With her swords, Oriana slashed the target into hundreds of pieces in a matter of seconds. Magna whispered, impressed and Luck cheered. These two really were like little kids sometimes.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Magna said.

By the end of the evening, Oriana could barely move her body. She sat on the floor with the other members of the Black Bulls completely out of breath with no strength left in their limbs.

"Good thing Finral is with us, I'm not sure I could fly all the way back right now." Vanessa sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. At least give me a minute. I'm not some transport service, you guys know that." Finral grunted.

"Black Bulls, to your feet. The Kira family is coming to greet us." Nozel ordered with a cold glare.

Oriana's body froze once again. Why were they coming? What was the need to greet the mages?

Stupid formalities, this is exactly why I left.

Oriana exchanged looks with Zora, he seemed exhausted just from being pissed all day. His presence definitely would make things harder. Maybe, just maybe if she hid in the back, she wouldn't be noticed. Oriana pulled the hood of her robe over her head and lifted herself to her feet, then joined her friends as the Kira family was took a peak from under her hood and recognised Finesse Calmreich, a frail looking woman, and the severe presence of her father, Albert Calmreich.

"Of course the king himself wouldn't come. We're probably not good enough for his Majesty to get his ass out of his chair." Zora commented and gained an elbow in the ribs courtesy of Noelle.

'Just blend in the crowd, they won't even notice.'

Fuegoleon introduced both of the members of the Kira family and Finesse and her father gave a brief speech that Oriana heard nothing of. Focusing her sight on the ground and all her other senses on just blending in, not standing out in any way, shape or form. When they were dismissed, Oriana dropped her shoulders as she turned away towards the exit. She barely took two steps before she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.

"Excuse me," a weak voice spoke to her. "You have really beautiful black hair, it reminds me of someone I lost. Could you let me see your face?"

Finesse's voice was so gentle, her tone was so kind and humble, in comparison with most loyals, but this very moment, without even knowing it, she was cornering Oriana with her kind words. She thought of politely refusing. Knowing Finesse, she wouldn't cause a fret because of that, but like he was reading her mind, Albert Calmreich spoke with his usual stern tone.

"Have you not heard Lady Finesse's request? Take off that hood this instant."

His voice brought back memories of dark rooms and broken bones. Oriana decided that very second that all Gods had abandoned her.

"Oriana, that's incredibly rude." Finral whispered in her direction.

"That's my girl!" Zora's shrill laugh made some heads turn to his direction.

Oriana lifted her head. There was no other way around it. Any other scenarios she thought, none of those would result in a peaceful resolution. Only one way to not cause too much problem to everyone else besides herself. She would carry the burden. It was her problem, she would not involve anyone else. Even if it was too late for that already.

Turning to Finesse, Oriana took a step back before removing the hood from her head. Her brown and purple gaze buried into Finesse's purple eyes.

"My goodness." Finesse gasped.

Her father was observing every trace of Oriana's face speechless. She was incapable of smiling to them, of doing anything but her neutral expression. Fighting the urge to run away from the Castle, Oriana fixed her stance.

"Dulce?" Albert called.

Oriana ignored him, keeping her eyes fixed on Finesse's.

"Dulce, it's you isn't it?" her father took a step towards Oriana, but she backed away on instinct.

"Hm, what's going on?" Asta asked.

"It couldn't be…" Noelle's was also in disbelief. "It never even crossed my mind."

Oriana could hear the whispers and senseless chatter behind her, as they got more and more oppressive, she became unable to recognize the sounds. Then, she felt gentle hands cupping her face.

"It's really you." Finesse sighed. "My beautiful sister is alive."

Her teary eyes moved Oriana. She knew they were real, she knew the relief in Finesse's voice was real. Although she couldn't say the same about her own father's behaviour. There was some drama added to his stunned expression. He was never concerned about Oriana's well being, as long as she filled her role as the Kira's youngest daughter, her father was not one to care.

Oriana accepted Finesse's embrace, but now glared in her father's direction. The orange hues of the sunset made him seem older and his marble skin had more wrinkles than Oriana remembered, they twisted with the concern he was trying to portray, a facade that only Oriana could recognize. To everyone else around them, he would look like a distressed father who finally found his long lost daughter, but Oriana could see the malicious smirk behind the mask.

The screeches of Finral and Asta made Oriana break eye contact with her father.

"You're a royal?" they both screamed in unison.

"I heard about the missing Calmreich daughter. I never imagined it was you, Oriana." Noelle spoke by Oriana's side.

Finesse ended the embrace, but kept her hands on Oriana's shoulders.

"This is a motive for celebration. Dulce Calmreich is back with her family!" Finesse said with enthusiasm in her voice. "Right, father?" she turned to the speechless man.

"What? Wait a second, let's not jump to conclusions…" Oriana spoke.

"I'm so confused." Asta yelled. "How did a training session become a family reunion?"

"Shut up, Stupidsta. You are ruining the moment." Noelle reprimanded.

"No, wait. I'm not going…" Oriana was interrupted by her father, who decided to finally speak.

"Are you truly back?" Albert's severe tone did not change. "Are you ready to fill your role as the heir?"

It was just like Oriana suspected. His shock wore off rather quickly. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm still wearing the Black Bulls robe." Oriana spitted.

"This is not the time to argue," Finesse pleaded. "Father, let us forget the duties for one night. Please father, I got my sister back. It is an occasion to celebrate."

Oriana did not have the nerve to tell her sister the truth. As for their father, he was muted, pondering his oldest daughter's suggestion. A malicious grin grew on his face that made Oriana take a step back, but no one else seemed to notice. This time it wasn't even hidden behind a mask, it was right there in the public eye.

"It is settled. Let us welcome my youngest daughter with a feast!"

As her eyes widened, Oriana took a glance at her squad mates. Oriana could never forget that expression on her father's face. His punishments, his ruling hand. In her panic, she managed to spot Zora already half way through the courtyard on his way out and her heart fell from her chest. She couldn't let him go without saying anything, she made that mistake before. With that in mind, Oriana broke free of her sisters gentle hands and jolted in Zora's direction.

"Wait" Oriana called. "Zora, wait!"

Much to her surprise, Zora did halt his step and looked behind his shoulder.

"Don't you have a fancy celebration to go to?" Zora asked with disregard in his voice. That tone was never, not even once, directed to Oriana like that.

"I don't want a stupid celebration." Oriana said in her gasp for air. "I never wanted any of it. All I want right now is make sure you're okay."

"I'll be fine. I'm always fine."

"No, you're not."

"Seriously, just go." Zora started walking towards the exit. "Don't let your family wait."

"At least let me explain for once!" Oriana persisted, but the distance grew between them. "Damn it!"

Her sister's gentle hand found her way to her sister again, but Oriana could barely feel it. Her legs urged to run to Zora, but her sister's love pulled her inside the Clover Castle. Passing through her squad mates, her body was not answering to her own will anymore. She looked at everyone's shocked faces. Asta was the most confused of them all, but Magna furrowed his eyebrows in a preoccupied expression that not even his sunglasses could hide. Oriana held his gaze with her own. Out of anyone there, she knew Magna would be the one who understood that she was, in that moment, screaming out her lungs for help.

\-----

Noelle watched her friend being escorted inside the Clover Castle, into the Kira Estate. She had heard all about it, she remembered the environment in her house when it happened. When the youngest daughter of the Calmreich family had gone missing. Noelle had never met Dulce Calmreich and never had seen her face without the disturbance of adults legs or some sort of head piece, but it was a mourned name in the Royals' midst.

Albert Calmreich stayed behind with some of the Royal Guards. He remained silent, scratching his shin while he faced the two reunited sisters. He was acting strange for someone who had just found his long lost daughter, in Noelle's opinion. He did not cry a single tear or bend his mouth into the slightest faint of smile. In fact, he didn't dare to touch her. Before leaving and trailing behind his two daughters, he spoke to the Black Bulls with a cold and severe look in his eyes,

"You did some good, keeping Dulce alive. However, don't expect her to return." Albert divulged. "Her playtime is over. She will make her debut tomorrow night. as she should have years ago and she will fulfill her role. It is decided. Of course, all members of the Silva family will be welcomed." he was speaking to Noelle only. "Now it's time for you to go home."

With this, he turned his back to the Black Bulls, leaving the group in disbelief.

"What the hell does this mean?" Asta yelled, waving his arm around. "Give us Oriana back!"

"Stop it, Shrimpsta." Magna put a arm in front of Asta before he did anything stupid as usual. "We will need Captain Yami for this."


	10. Oriana's cell

Her room looked exactly the same as she left it. Maybe, cleaner and orderly. She was never a neat child to begin with, but even now Oriana was scared to touch any of the pristine furniture or to sit on the bed and stain the expensive fabric with the dirt and dust in her clothes and hands. One old lady from the staff came into her bedroom, excusing herself, to warn the young Calmreich that her bath was ready for her. The lady was new, she didn't work with the Calmreich when Oriana was still living here, but some familiar faces were delighted to have Dulce Calmreich back. Dulce Calmreich. A name Oriana was not used to anymore. It felt like it didn't belong to her. On the corridor, on her way to her old room, a friendly servant would call for her birth name and it took her a second to acknowledge it was her they were speaking to. In her private bathroom, she was asked to leave the dirty clothes in the basket as usual, they would collect her clothes and wash them the following day. Oriana spent her time in the bath refocusing her mind, processing what had happened. She was repeating Asta's question in her mind.

'How did a training session turn into a family reunion, indeed. So much for taking a stand against my fears.'

Oriana retraced her steps that day. She should've never listened to Mereoleona's inspiring advice. No, before that. She should have ran as fast as she could before anyone had noticed. Nope, even before that. Zora was right, none of them should've left their bed that morning. Once they did, everything went wrong. Remembering then the tone in Zora's voice, Oriana held her knees closer to her chest. It wasn't disdain, he could never have the same despise for Oriana as he had for the other Royals, it was utter disappointment. It was worse. She had lied to him. Oriana enlaced her fingers around her legs and rested her forehead on her knees. She had done it again. By now, Zora was somewhere furious with her. This time, she wasn't sure if she could bring him back, or if there was a way to reignite the bond they shared.

Coming back into her room, wrapped in silk robe and towels, Oriana found a long dark red dress. The skirt seemed a little too narrow for Oriana's taste and there were little bows on the elbows. She fought the urge to retrieve her dirty outfit and her Black Bulls robe. Shifting her weight from one leg to the other, she stared at the dress with a grimace. The dress accentuated her chest and fell to her feet. It was uncomfortable, she would never be able to fight wearing something like this.

When she was younger, she would always get away from these silly dresses and get herself some comfortable clothes she could run and practice her magic while still looking the part, as her maid used to say. Ever since she remembered, Oriana wanted to be a Magic Knight. Their glory and victorious demeanor were contagious and she craved it like most children her age at the time. She would drag Finesse in the streets of the Capital and play with any group of kids that were around. It was fun until her sister became too sick to do any physical activities. It was around the same time the two sisters were officially betrothed to the Vaude brothers and, consequently, when her father ran out of patience for her foolish dreams. As a member of the Calmreich family and as a possible heir to the Clover Throne, Dulce Calmreich could never become a Magic Knight. However, Oriana was never one to pretend and the fire inside her would never cease. She was never able to remember her manners, to behave and stand with a pretentious grin and cocky look in her eyes. To sit quietly and learn how to paint or how to play an instrument. She liked to read, though, but even the sappy novels she was given were unsatisfying.

There was a soft knock on her door. Oriana was still observing her figure in the mirror, but had no trouble in telling her sister to come in. Finesse herself was wearing her usual pink gown and a flaring cape, her locks of hair neatly combed, her perfect posture. Finesse belonged in this Castle, but her kind eyes and soft spoken voice made her different from other Royals. That's probably why Finesse was always the person Oriana looked for to do pretty much anything.

"You look breathtaking, Dulce." Finesse looked at her with a glimmer of nostalgia in her eyes. "I picked the dress for you."

"It's beautiful, thank you." Oriana forgot to add how hard it was to walk with the narrow skirt.

"I'm so glad you're back," Finesse took Oriana's hand and pulled her to one of the chairs in the middle of her excessively large room, sitting in front of her. "Tell me, are the Magic Squads fun?"

"Yes, it's a really fun time with those guys." Oriana smiled fondly. "It can be hard sometimes, but there is never a dull moment."

Finesse took both of Oriana's hands into her own.

"How did you even get there? We thought you were dead, Dulce." Finesse's concern was dictating that sentence. Oriana was sure that if Finesse ever saw her sister again, she would be mad furious. It was the natural reaction when someone you care about simple vanishes. "I was so worried and yet, you weren't that far at all."

Oriana cleared her throat. She tried to figure when it would be a good time to ask Finesse to stop calling her by that name.

"You know what father did to me, right?"

"What do you mean?" Finesse's tone was so innocent.

Oriana figured that her sister wouldn't have a clue. If she had spoken to her back then, maybe now she wouldn't be in this situation.

"Father was against me becoming a Magic Knight." Oriana spoke and her sister nodded knowingly. "He did everything in his power to keep me from using my magic at all. He would put restraints on me to suppress my magic, he would lock me in this room for hours in the dark."

All the things Oriana would rather forget, they were coming back to her. Finesse looked terrified in her small and fragile self, but Oriana continued,

"One time I tried to resist the restraints and he broke my arm…"

"I thought you had fallen when that happened." Finesse gasped.

"That was what our father said. It was a lie." Oriana said. "Most of what he says is a lie."

Oriana clenched her fists on the table, Finesse's touch lightened.

"I'm sure you were just confused."

"I'm not confused, Finesse!" Oriana yelled, not being able to keep her cool anymore, she lifted herself from the chair. "Our father is a monster! That's why I ran away! I was lucky Captain Yami found me and brought me to the Black Bulls!"

Finesse retracted her arms, seeming even smaller.

"He was the one who told you I was dead, right? Well, look at me. I'm alive!" Oriana pleaded.

She knew their father would never hurt Finesse the same way, because Finesse was not like her sister. She was obedient, content with her life, but Oriana always wanted more than the luxurious and pretentious Royal costumes. She dreamed bigger.

"Open your eyes, Finesse!"

Then, the estate was shaking with an exploding sound. Oriana held on to the table in front of her. Something had just invaded the Clover Castle.

\-----

The crash in the Kira Estate had the whole castle tremble. The Royal Guards called for reinforcements as the smoke lifted and revealed many figures standing in the debris, however there was no stopping Captain Yami or the Black Bulls now. Their imminent presence and spiking mana made the guards shake in their boots while holding their grimoires open.

"What in the heavens is this?" Albert Calmreich was rushing downstairs. "You fools better have someone protecting the king! His majesty shall not be bothered by this nonsense." Albert spoke to the guards, taking in the scene in front of him. "I'll deal with this."

"But, Lord…"

"Are you disobeying a direct order?"

With that, the few guards ran upstairs to the King's room, leaving Oriana's father alone with the Black Bulls.

"I hope you recognize the consequences of this invasion." Albert spoke. "This will cost immensely. I'll have every single one of the Black Bulls thrown into jail!"

"Give Oriana back!" Asta yelled, ignoring the man's words.

Yami bit his cigarette,observing the old man's moves. He definitely was in charge, however he had yet to see the Black Bulls rage. One of his kids was taken away from him, Yami was not one to let that happen without a fight. He narrowed his eyes,

"Excuse our intrusion, your Highness ass." Yami rested his hand on the handle of his katana. "I heard that you were taking care of one of my weirdos and came to pick her up." his voice echoed through the entrance hall. Or what was left of it.

His gravelly tone had Oriana's father scowling in rage. Although keeping his distance, his tone was assertive and definitive.

"Dulce has a duty as a member of the Calmreich family. I allowed my daughter to play Magic Knight long enough, now is time to fulfill her role."

Yami clenched the handle of his swords, fighting the urge to cut the man's head then and there.

"You allowed her?" Yami mumbled. "She ran away from this place until I found her in some village wandering around."

Yami still recalls how every single one of his members received the Black Bulls robe and Oriana was no different. He knew exactly who she was, all that was taken from her. Oriana never told him how her father used to mistreat her. Only bits and pieces. However, the bruises in her body told the rest. Yami had taken upon himself to help her. Give her a new name and identity and let her join his squad.

"Of course she had assistance. Dulce would never be able to get away with such a scheme on her own." Albert commented.

"It's a shame you don't recognize your daughters potential."

"I do recognize her potential. You think I don't feel her blessed mana even here? You thought I didn't know she was alive?" Albert asked, not waiting for a response. "I was well aware of what she was doing. In spite of her talent to be a Magic Knight, she has a role to fulfill. If His Majesty is to pass away without leaving any heirs, my oldest daughter would be next in line, but she is too sick and fragile to accept the crown. For that reason, Dulce Calmreich stands as the rightful heir to the Clover Crown in the present moment."

Captain Yami heard a few gasps around him. He wasn't surprised, he had his own suspicions on the matter. He only wondered if Oriana didn't tell him as one of the things that she decided to keep to herself or if she wasn't even aware of it at all.

"Oriana might be the next queen?" Finral mumbled under his breath.

"Even the hard heads in the Black Bulls can understand that Dulce is going to be too busy to play Magic Knight in the future."

"Isn't that her own choice?" Yami asked, lifting his chin, the tone in his voice signaled he was running out of patience. "Have you thought that she might not want it?"

"What does that matter? I've already decided for her! She is my daughter and she will be the next queen of the Clover Kingdom!"

In a flash, Yami was on Albert's face, his purple mana emanating from his body and his katana in hand. Albert Calmreich fell to his feet.

"Are you saying that your own greed is more important than your daughter's dreams? What a shit father you are." Yami grumbled, biting on his cigarette. Then, he turned to his squadmates. "Go find the kid. We are bringing her home."

"Right, sir!"

"She is already home! You can't take her!" Albert yelled, still unable to stop his body from shaking.

Yami pierced the carpet right by the Royal's side and glared into his soul.

"If you have a problem, you can solve it with me."

"You will not get away with this! She belongs here!" backing away, his voice brittled as he got up and ran in the opposite direction from Yami. "I will get her back from you criminals!"

\-----

It was only a matter of seconds before a servant came to retrieve Finesse from Oriana's room and locked her inside. The metallic click of the lock sent her down to her knees.

'Not now. Not yet.'

She wanted to fight it, she wanted to escape. She knew it was coming, before long, they would come back with the shackles. Then lock her again until she agreed to behave. Her cloudy eyes didn't allow her to see anything else but that image. Her senses were blocked by that thought.

Oriana got her hands in something great, but it was in her DNA. She tried to change, but she could never pretend to be someone else. That's why she was punished so many times. Oriana tried to get back to her feet, fight back, run away, but she would only stumble for a second before she fell again. All her life, she was told she was nothing special, but she didn't care about that. Those words never diminished her dreams. Her tenacity only led her to have her own personal, princess-like cage. She would be locked for weeks if needed. How long it took to discourage her.

One day, after gaining her grimoire, the desire to escape wrote a spell. It wasn't like she could use it in her restraints, but all she had to do was to be patient and act the part. The following day, that was the last day she ever stepped in those halls. It's been five years and there she was again. She could never get used to the cell.


	11. Stolen

"Coming through!" a booming voice screamed outside of Oriana's room.

She didn't have time to try and get up before the doors burst open and a flying motorcycle invaded the room.

"Oriana!" Asta called.

Filled to the brim with emotions, her shoulders dropped and tears fell with the view of Asta and Magna riding the flying motorcycle. The light from the corridor illuminated the blissful in her expression. Her family, her actual family came for her. Doesn't matter what road she takes, her family would always bring her home.

"Hold on tight, we are getting out of here!" Magna stretched out his hand.

A genuine smile appeared on Oriana's face as she accepted Magna's hand and got up to her feet with difficulty due to her tight skirt.

"I'm sick of this." Oriana groaned.

She grabbed the end of the skirt and with one swing motion, she ripped the fabric up to her hip on both sides. Holding tight to Asta after taking the seat behind him, she spoke,

"Let's go home!"

"Hell yeah!" the boys screamed in unison.

Riding the motorcycle through the corridors filled Oriana with adrenaline. They would laugh in the face of stunned servants and the little yelps of surprise. Magna kept on going faster. In a matter of a couple of minutes, they were hovering over the debris in the entrance hall. The bull form of the Black Bulls base peeked inside the Kira Estate from where the door used to be. Oriana laughed delighted with the scenario in front of her. She would not miss this senseless place or the ill-mannered people inhabiting it.

"Welcome home, kid." Captain Yami greeted.

Oriana would not worry about her sister. She knew Finesse wouldn't rebel against their father, in fact, she wasn't sure if her sister believed her. Oriana was the only one who felt the bone chilling cold in these corridors. Finesse would be just fine and, hopefully, Oriana wouldn't have to come back. Ever again.

\-----

It was a costume in the Black Bulls to turn anything into a celebration. As soon as the squad reunited, Vanessa didn't even wait to be back to the Common Realm and immediately opened a bottle of wine to share with everyone and more were to come. However, Oriana couldn't help but notice Zora's absence. He was missing that night.

She wasn't expecting a knight in shining armor to come and save her, she knew that wasn't Zora's style and she liked that about him. But, fuck, giving her five minutes to explain. Was that too much to ask? Oriana had extended her arm to him, pleading, and he turned around and rejected her. How stubborn was he that he couldn't understand that the Kira family was never something she wanted?

Maybe he would understand, only if she actually had told him before. Now she couldn't forget the look in his eyes, dismissing her.

When the Black Bulls base settled back in the forest in the Common Realm, almost immediately there was a knock in the door. Oriana was done with surprises for the rest of her life and groaned at the door. It wasn't Mereoleona's roaring knock, thankfully, but it was desperate and persistent. Gordon mumbled something after opening the door to a figure that rushed in. Disoriented, a boy with a Coral Peacocks robe came in inspecting every face present.

"Suga?" called Oriana.

"There you are!"

Sugawara pushed through the other squad members and enveloped Oriana in a tight hug.

"I heard what happened! What is this story about you being a Calmreich?" Suga asked, stepping back from Oriana.

"A long story…"

"I never knew of any of this! Can't believe you didn't tell me!" he pouted.

"Who is this guy?" Asta whispered to Noelle, even though his whispers weren't exactly considered a whisper, more like a normal person speaking tone.

This caught Sugawara's attention. Turning to the common hall, Oriana and Suga were surrounded by inquisitive faces and some protective stances.

"Yeah, this was kinda rude of me." Suga apologized, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm Sugawara. Me and Oriana met during our time in Japan this last year." he explained. "It's nice to meet the Black Bulls."

Noelle interjected,

"Hmpf, if you're going to explain to your friend, you should explain to us too. We did save you after all."

Noelle had the cold Silva look in her eyes. Oriana was beyond thankful for what her squad did for her and she knew Noelle was right. No one added to her statement, but the expectant faces around her spoke for themselves. Although she wishes Zora was there, so she only had to tell this story once more and never speak of it again, Oriana took a seat on one of the stools near the bar, Suga sat beside her. She cleared her throat and told her real story. This time, not leaving any sensitive details behind. Her background, her relationship with her father, her and her sisters betrothal to the Vaude siblings and how Yami helped her come up with her new identity.

"Jeez, no wonder you didn't want to talk about it." Magna commented, earning an elbow in the ribs from Vanessa.

"Well, now you know." Oriana said.

"I never imagined it. I mean, you do have a rare eye colour, but I never guessed you were Royalty!" Sugawara disclosed. "Didn't even question it, not even once. Can't believe Hinata and even Bokuto from Fukurodani caught up to that before me."

Oriana laughed at his friend's comment. Those two were really the ones to question something out of the ordinary with no filters whatsoever.

"That's what 's worrying you?" Oriana scoffed.

"I'm glad you made dear friends in Japan. Oriana's friends are my friends too. I would like to meet or see a picture so I could make dolls of them for my collection of friends." Gordon mumbled.

"What are they talking ab-?" Magna's question was cut-off by Finral.

"Oriana, I was thinking." Finral threw an arm around Oriana's shoulders. "At some point, you were to marry my youngest brother and I were to marry Finesse, although due to certain circumstances," he sped up the last part. "Our respective siblings are now betrothed to each other and we are both single. This cannot be a coincidence. It could only be destiny if you ask me."

"Don't touch me." Oriana said blatantly.

Finral immediately removed his arm in a panic and Oriana couldn't help but sneer at his reaction.

"I'll cook us some food!" Charmy said. "There's nothing better than comfort food for miserable souls."

"I'm not miserable!" Oriana spoke. "All of that is in the past. Today's incident is not really bothering me anymore."

"But you still look sad." Nero spoke on top of Asta's head.

"I have a lot on my mind."

"The Miyagi situation?" Suga asked in a low tone.

Oriana's fists closed in her lap. That was one of the first things in her mind as soon as she was safe back with the Black Bulls. She worried about her friend's safety. The battle ahead with the demon was her top priority, but it was the foe in the Miyagi Prefecture that caused the knot in her throat to grow. The one thing that would make her heart jump anxiously. The more time she wasted on this stupid sudden undecidedness of hers, the worst it would be. The faster the enemy was arrested, the faster she could go back to training, The faster she would see Zora again.

With this in mind, Oriana stood up and looked Yami in the eyes,

"Captain, if you could dismiss me, I would like to assist with the enemy in the south."

The assertiveness in her voice made Yami smile softly. Taking a few steps towards her, Yami placed a hand on Oriana's head.

"You're making the right choice, for once." Yami complimented, making Oriana open her mouth into a smile.

"You're coming with me, right?" Oriana extended her hand to Sugawara, which he took gladly.

"I had already decided on that." divulged Suga.

The last time Oriana left for the South, it was quiet and cold, but this night was filled with Charmy's food and warm laughs. Leaving at such crucial times was bitter, however, there were others voices that called for her. In an attempt to quiet down those voices for only a few hours, just so she could appreciate her family, Oriana was taking all glasses of wine Vanessa was handing her, not worrying about the bitchin' headache she would have the next day.

The morning after, Zora was still no place to be found. She dared to knock on his door, but to no avail. Sugawara was waiting for her in the capital, before leaving the Clover Kingdom, they were to warn Marx Francois that they would be accepting the mission.

Their boat would leave before that evening.

The farewell's took longer than expected. Charmy gave Oriana one more bag to carry, full of home made food, enough to keep her and Sugawara well fed for the next few weeks, probably. She was running short of time, the boat might leave without her, however, she had to ask Yami about Zora's whereabouts. She took her chance when the others were distracted with Magna and Luck's rumble.

"He came back this morning, but since he likes to wander off so much, I assigned him a mission. These damn priests keep on knocking on my fucking door."

"He probably will come back sooner than me… Can you tell him that-"

"Tell him yourself." interjected Yami. "Don't involve me in your lovey-dovey business."

"It's not like that!" Oriana screeched, waving her arms dismissively. "I'll get going now."

"Don't you dare die in the south! I'll go there and kill you myself!" disclosed Yami.

"I know, I know!"

Oriana wasn't hoping for forgiveness, she wasn't even expecting an answer at all. Only to be heard and a chance to fix their bond. Even if ragged and ran-down, mostly to Oriana's fault, she still wanted to fix it. There was no time left, though. A robotic-like voice called all travelers to their seats. For now, Oriana had no other choice but to let go.

\-----

An ancient spell book has been stolen. All Zora had to do was retrieve it. That is why he is processing why the fuck he is lying on the floor out of breath and out mana. The task was so simple Captain Yami sent him alone, he surely could handle it. So, why?

He didn't need her. He questioned it all the time, but never really reached an answer. She lied to him about everything, surely she couldn't love him. He doesn't know anymore. Zora didn't even know her name, her real name. He couldn't care rat's ass if she was a Royal, he loved her, but her dishonesty was eating him away.

He didn't need her. He didn't want her. It was so hard to concentrate on the mission when Oriana was on his mind all the time. That is probably why he hasn't moved an inch since, defeated. Maybe he would wait until the morning to move. He had a weird temper, now he was mad, but maybe the following day, seeing her smile, he would forgive her again. But how many times would he have to do this routine? How many times would he accept to play the fool for her majesty?

'I don't need her.'

He thought, his mind fading into darkness. In his struggle to keep his eyes open, he saw Oriana. Her body on top of his. Zora couldn't feel her hands pressuring his chest, but he could see her sad smile. He couldn't escape what he was feeling.

"I don't need you."


	12. Blood looks good on you

If anyone asks them, they wouldn't be able to answer. No one was sure of when it started. All of a sudden, she was there all the time, at their practices, at their games, having lunch with them. Often she would casually sit with them, but it was unusual. Her face that is.

Just as easily as she would break a smile, her face would fall into apathy. An unreadable face. Showing no emotion. After a few days, they fell into the same state.

Daichi looked at his team, once full of energy and chaotic shouts, now is more dull than any club he has ever seen. Although he couldn't really judge them, he was feeling empty too. Most of the time his body didn't seem to belong to him. Like there were strings pushing and pulling.

Michimiya appeared, asked him to be with her. He couldn't read her face. How could she have so much fun with her impassive expression? So dull. A couple of days later, Daichi saw himself in the mirror with the same absent look in his face. A few weeks was all it took for the others to look the same. Maybe it was the weather.

Daichi thought this was a good thing. No one was sad Oriana and Suga left anymore. Michimiya was with them now as well. No one missed them. No one felt anything at all anymore.

\-----

For the time being, Oriana and Sugawara decided to make Oriana's house their temporary home. If there was such a threat in Miyagi, they were to stick together, besides, there was plenty of space for the both of them.

Oriana was just relieved she could finally put her bags down. She felt like her arms would legitimately fall off if she had to take another step with the bag of food Charmy provided. As thankful as she was, Charmy definitely went overboard.

"Was it really necessary to bring all that food?" Suga was also putting down his bags in his new temporary bedroom, also known as the living room. "Pretty sure you weren't dying of hunger before."

"Charmy insisted. Besides, after you eat her food, everything else just tastes stale." said Oriana. "I even tried to learn how to cook from her, but I could never reach her level."

"You are seriously making me hungry."

"We can order take out or something. This food should be kept for later."

"Won't it go bad?"

"Charmy's food doesn't go bad as fast as normal food." Oriana only now remembered that not everyone knew about the miracles of Charmy's food. "And!, this food increases and replenishes mana. Which means that if we have to use our magic at any circumstance, Charmy's food will have the same effect as if we were in the Clover Kingdom, only that it works faster. And you're eating a delicious meal."

Sugawara seemed absolutely dumbfounded at this information. It's an ability that not many knew about.

"That's so cool!"

"I know, right? Basically, if an apocalypse were to happen, you would want Charmy around."

"No kidding. I'm super curious to taste her food!"

Then, a grin grew in his face for only a second before his expression changed to a completely innocent one.

"You know, I'm feeling so tired. Maybe I used too much magic in Clover and didn't refuel my mana completely." he said in a sluggish tone.

Oriana laughed at his dramatic scene. She had no structure to refuse Sugawara and she was also sure Charmy had baked them some cookies. Unzipping the bag, Oriana started her search for the round tupperware with the purple lid. That was the one Charmy always used to carry cookies for the squad.

"Save me some!" Oriana said before handing the tupperware to her friend.

"Thank you!"

"I'll turn the fridge on and store the food. Make yourself at home."

From the kitchen, Oriana could hear the boy in the other room saying wonders about Charmy's cookies. In a matter of seconds, he was at Oriana's leg to let him have an actual meal. Oriana sighed. She really thought Sugawara was supposed to be the responsible, motherly one, but apparently their roles would switch every once in a while.

\-----

That same afternoon, they were to meet with the Japanese Magic Embassy and make themselves behave at any cost. They were representing the Magic Knights in the Clover Kingdom and Marx reminded them to have decorum and behave adequately. Not to cause any trouble. To accept to help in whatever the Embassy needs willingly. To not drag their feet. The list was long, honestly. In that aspect, Marx reminded Oriana of her own father. To be so concerned with one's conduct might be a Royal thing. It was annoying, but they had to agree to all of Marx's so called 'suggestions'.

"Welcome, Magic Knights! Thank you for coming to our aid despite the situation in the Clover Kingdom." the ambassador of the embassy greeted them with an affable expression in his face.

"Of course, it's our duty." Sugawara replied.

"Even so, even so." the ambassador got up from his office chair. "My name is Iachima Chisaka, welcome to my humble office."

His office was different from the Wizard King's. It had the same elements, piles of paperwork, countless books on the shelves and a busy desk. However, the dark oak desk in front of Oriana was decorated with a gold plate with 'Chisaka Iachima' engraved in japanese characters. The curtains were heavy and barely any natural light came into the room, but Oriana could clearly see the Ambassador's self-portrait hanging in the wall behind his desk and the self-imposed expression. The blue suit he was wearing and his gelled hair only made the picture even more tacky.

"I would not want to bother the Magic Knights too much on their first day in Japan." Ambassador Chisaka rubs his hands together. "Maybe you could just ask our researchers to assess the situation for you and then-"

"If you don't mind, "Oriana interrupted, taking the Ambassador by surprise. "We would like to assess the situation ourselves."

She felt a light touch on her arm, as a reminder from Sugawara that they were supposed to behave.

'Oh, right.'

"Of course, of course. The Magic Knights have their own procedures." the Ambassador laughed. "Well, if it isn't too bothersome, I was going to ask this tomorrow, but maybe you could do a round in the east side of Miyagi in your brooms? We have some invisibility cloaks we would be thrilled to borrow you."

"It wouldn't be any trouble at all." Sugawara had a brilliant smile on his face.

"It is settled! I will ask my secretary to bring you the cloaks and take you to the departure zone on the roof."

Before he grabbed the handle of his landline, he turned to the mages once more.

"Although, I would just ask you to not approach the citizens. We are carrying this investigation slowly and no one we have interviewed seemed to answer coherently to our questions."

Both of them nodded.

\-----

Ever since arriving in Miyagi, Oriana has felt the flood of threatening mana surrounding the town. It was so dense, she couldn't tell where it was coming from. The whole town was a terror. The sad cloudy sky made justice to the empty, dirty streets. Anyone they would come across, walked in silence with their head low and a blank expression. It was hard to wonder what had happened to this lively neighborhood. So many restaurants closed and the shops were empty. Oriana clenched her fists around her broom. The last place to go was Karasuno Highschool, the one place she dreads the most. Seeing the building from above was enough to make her chest tight. Everything looked grey and gloomy. There was no light in Miyagi, not anymore.

"Do you think they know we might be the cause of this?" Suga asked suddenly, looking down on their old colleagues.

They have been watching them for a while, probably expecting to find a familiar face. Even from a distance, seeing them would provide them some relief. Or so they thought.

"If they did, we would be in cells under the Magic Knights Headquarters. Besides, we are not sure of that ourselves. It's just a theory. It could be a coincidence."

"A hell of a coincidence, if you as-" Sugawara's sentence was cut short.

Oriana felt it too. A sudden dark energy made the hair on the back of her neck rise. They were being watched. Looking around them frenetically, they tried to pinpoint a face looking up at them, but to no avail. Sugawara closed his eyes in attempts to focus his mana detection senses, but Oriana couldn't stop the panic overwhelming her. How could anyone see them? They were wearing invisibility cloaks. No normal person would be able to see through the fabric.

"It's no use, I can't tell where it's coming from." Suga divulged.

"Let's get some cover. I feel wide open in here."

The duo flew over the building and landed on the isolated roof. Oriana wished she felt more relieved, being out of sight, but her heart wouldn't stop pounding in her chest. Something was lingering. This place wasn't safe anymore. At this point, Oriana stopped caring about Marx's rules and warnings. They could come and arrest her if they wanted. She already decided she was going to act.

"I can't take this. We should find them."

"What are you talking about?"

"Daichi, Kiyoko, Tanaka, our friends. We should find them." Oriana explained. "Let's hide our brooms and robes here. No one will find them."

"We were told to just make the rounds. We aren't supposed to be investigating or making contact with anyone yet." there was frenzy in Sugawara's voice, mostly because he knew there was no way to stop Oriana once she had made up her mind.

"If they were really expecting a Black Bull to follow orders through and through, they are absolutely idiots."

"But-"

"Let 's go."

With no room for complaints, Oriana left her robe under her broom and made her way to the roof door. She waited for Sugawara to follow her down the empty stairs. The whole environment in the corridors felt different. No idle chatter or busy looking students, there was only the sound of dull steps and the occasional whisper. Without their uniforms, they were surely catching a lot of eyes. Oriana couldn't help the frustration rising in her. So many people, however, the faces she was looking for were nowhere to be found. If they ran into a professor or the vice-president of the school, they would be in serious trouble.

"Oh, look who it is."

This high-pitched voice was familiar to Oriana, she decided to ignore it. Out of anyone, it had to be her.

"Michimiya, hello." Sugawara greeted with an awkward wave, although Oriana was settled with a dismissive nod of her head, not bothering to look back at her.

"You two shouldn't be here."

This made Oriana actually halt and turn around. What was Daichi doing with her? Then remembered that it was a silly thought. They were friends, after all. That was normal, but the cold stare in Daichi's eyes wasn't, much less the close distance between him and the other girl.

"We came to check on you guys." Sugawara easily evaded Daichi, but it wouldn't be that easy.

"We are doing just fine." Daichi pulled an arm around Michimiya. "Actually. we're doing much better."

He was looking down upon Oriana, staring at her wide eyes. Oriana had no words to speak, she could only stare at their closeness as Michimiya caught Daichi's hand on hers.

"You should go home." Daichi said dismissively.

"No sense, Daichi. We want to say hi to everyone."

"I told you already, we are doing better without you. We moved on."

Oriana grabbed Sugawara's shoulder, maybe a little too tight, but she couldn't help it. Daichi's new attitude and Michimiya's striking smirk were pulling Oriana's last straws.

"Now that we are done over here," Oriana said in a gravelly tone. "We are very busy and have better things to do than dealing with you. If you don't mind, we will get going." she pulled for Sugawara to go ahead, then turned to face Daichi one more time. "Cheers to the new couple!" Oriana shouted.

With her eyes set aflame, Oriana didn't look back as she followed behind Sugawara.

"Did this just really happen?" Sugawara murmured.

"Fuck them. Let's find our friends."

Sugawara stopped in his tracks, but Oriana stumped passed him.

"Daichi was our friend too."

Oriana whirled to face Sugawara, fists clenching by her sides.

"That was not Daichi." she said. "Not the Daichi we know."

"What if the others feel the same and don't want to see us?"

"What are you even saying? This is not like you at all."

Then it struck her. There was a dark mage feeding off negative feelings. The blank expressions on everyone's face. The fact that Sugawara's despair etched in his features and the anger on Oriana's tone, even Daichi's attitude. This was probably the effects of whatever spell the mage is using.

"This was a bad idea." her voice fell with this new realization.

"It definitely was."

"No, that's not what I mean," Oriana took a couple of steps closer to Suga. "The mage's spell is starting to have an effect on us. If we stay here much longer we might end up like everyone here and then we won't be able to save anyone."

Sugawara blinked in surprise and then divulged,

"That must mean we are near the source."

"We just have to find it."

"No, wait." Suga interjected. "For now, that information has to be enough. We need a plan. We can come back when we are prepared."

Oriana was forced to agree, even if her instinct was telling her to act now and think later. The duo jolted from where they came from. Past all the dull looking students in the gray corridor.

However, when running up the stairs leading to the roof, they had an unexpected encounter. The cheeky look on Michimiya's face was revolting to Oriana. For sure, she hadn't changed at all. Probably because she was a source of negativity ever since she came out of her womb.

"Leaving so soon?" she let her crossed arms fall to her sides.

"We don't have time for you."

Oriana dismissed the other girl's presence and continued to climb the stairs. Sugawara followed her step.

"What a shame. It was good seeing you though." Michimiya touched Oriana's shoulder lightly as she passed her, making Oriana jump at the contact. "Don't forget to write us letters!" her voice trailed away as she disappeared to the next flight of steps under them.

Oriana had a bug-eyed expression as she turned to Suga.

"She took something from me." Oriana spoke with panic in her voice, holding the shoulder the other girl touched.

"Took something from you? She barely touched you." Suga scoffed.

"I know! When she touched me, I felt she… I-" Oriana paused. "I think she sucked mana out of me."

"How would she do that?"

"It's her." she stared down where Michimya disappeared. "She's the source. Michimiya is the dark mage."

Sugawara sighed at this assumption.

"You're not making any sense. That's not possible, we never sensed any mana from her."

"She could be masking it!"

His expression turned grim as he rested his hands on his hips.

"Let's just leave for now."

Oriana was sure of her statement. It had to be Michimiya, it made perfect sense. Why Suga and her always felt alert in her presence, why she was the only one who seemed the same in comparison to everyone else, the fact that she literally sucked mana out of Oriana from a light touch. She wanted to scream all of this to her friends face, but she had to agree. Maybe the sudden panic was due to the fact she was close to the source. Once she calmed down, she knew Sugawara would give her a chance to explain. With this in mind, she was content with going back to the embassy to report.

\-----

Oriana was just glad Marx's communication magic couldn't reach that far. She was sure she and Suga would be scolded for disobeying direct orders, even if it led to progress in the investigation of the dark mage. Since they had no other leads, they agreed to focus on Karasuno High, however Sugawara talked her out of pinning Michimya as the main suspect, because it was a rushed guess based on assumption. These were Suga's words, not Oriana's.

Whatever the case, it's been two days and it was driving Oriana insane. No one said a word about the fact that the mages contraried direct orders. Probably at the Ambassador's request. He was the one who was too fixed in pleasing the Magic Knights to say anything against them, and even accepted to take their lead on Karasuno, even without solid evidence. However, the investigation was taking too long. Too many bureaucracies and not enough action, in Oriana's opinion. Everyday they would waltz in the Embassy, sit for hours and end up with nothing. Oriana was restless on this specific day. She was sure they could come up with a plan to find out the mage faster than this. Honestly, even Asta could do it.

"Asta!" Oriana yelled suddenly, making Sugawara jump in his seat and other few glare at her.

"Who?"

"Asta could help us. He has this ki sensing thing." Oriana tried to explain as best as she understood of the matter herself. "Better yet, we need captain Yami! He could definitely find a dark mage and the source of all this in a matter of seconds!"

"Even if that's true, it will take any of them a week to arrive here. It would take too long." Suga divulged.

"It's not like we are making progress any faster." she opened her palm on the table, pleading for some comprehension. "We should have thought of this before! Actually, Marx should have thought of that."

"Having more back up would be nice."

"Oh, that won't be necessary, my dear Magic Knights." the Ambassador's voice emerged in the chaos that was the research room.

Suga and Oriana got up to their feet and greeted the director with confusion etched in their faces.

"You don't think we need back-up?" Oriana wondered.

"No, that would take too long." he hummed. "We have made the decision to give you permission to enter the Karasuno High premises and investigate further. The vice-president is already aware of your visit. If you could go today, it would be marvellous."

"We will do our best." Sugawara discloses. Oriana cleared her throat.

"Actually," she interjected. "We need permission to act upon finding the culprit."

Oriana didn't look at Suga's dour face, only fixated on Ambassador Chisaka as he pondered her request.

"It could be done, if you think that is necessary, of course."

Oriana was beyond satisfied. It was exactly what she wanted to hear. Biding their farewells, Suga and Oriana didn't bother to wait for someone to see them to the departure zone. Or better said, Oriana pulled Sugawara by his arm, carrying two neatly folded invisibility cloaks close to her chest.

"You are going to use this to clear your suspicions on Michimiya, aren't you?"

"What else?"

The boy sighed.

"At least you asked for permission."

\-----

There was really nothing they could do about the spell affecting them. The only hope they had was that they would snap each other out of despair. Also, the plan was to approach Michimya and directly ask about it. If that failed, they would have to come with a plan B, the plan Oriana didn't waste time on. She was certain of her suspicions. She knew what she felt when Michimiya touched her. More than mana, it was like it sucked her own life source. She couldn't shake that feeling off of her. Not until the girl was either clear of suspicion or behind bars.

During class hours, the corridors seemed even more depressing. Passing the classrooms, they could barely hear the professors teaching their class. Or students reading aloud. The inhuman silence made Oriana bite the inside of her cheek. This was it and would take all of Oriana's courage.

The school's vice-president had Michimiya be called from her class. Even his pompous self was now dialled down. Oriana could remember how the man would walk with his inflated chest and oily toupe scolding students for no good reason. Now, looking impassive and with a low tone, he disclosed he would leave the case to them, but he said he didn't want noise in the corridors anyways, so they would send Michimiya to the school roof where they could talk. And so, they waited. She was glad they were doing the talk in the exterior, the dark mana was dispersed instead of oppressing them between the walls. More important than that, if they had to use their magic, they didn't have to worry as much about stand-bys.

"Look who came back." Michimiya hummed as soon as she set eyes on Oriana and Suga. "And so soon."

Oriana closed her fists by her sides.

"We are going to be direct." she warned. "You're a mage, aren't you?"

There it was, that cheeky smile, like she knew better than anyone else.

"You mean, if I can use magic?" Michimiya sneered. "Do you really need to ask?"

"So it's also you who has been casting this dark spell." Sugawara disclosed.

"Most likely."

"What are you planning to achieve with this?" Oriana interjected.

"I'm just making new friends. There is nothing wrong with that, is it?"

There was innocence in her features, but her voice was poisoned with malevolence.

"Besides, none of this would have been possible without the help of the two of you." she continued. "It started with one new friend," she lifted one finger. "Then, the whole volleyball team were my friends. Soon enough, there was not one miserable soul who didn't want to be my friend!"

Oriana glowered at the girl. By her side, Sugawara had taken a step back and was holding on to Oriana's arm, trying to pull her back with him. The screeches in Michimiya's voice were like a terror, the confirmation to their suspicions. What she said next, was what made Oriana's bones shake.

"And believe me, you found me because I wanted you to." the girl lifted one of her arms. "You fell right into it."

With a sudden swing of her arm, Oriana felt what might be strings pulling her own arm as a command to open her grimoire against her will. Another swing and Oriana's body whirled in Sugawara's direction.

"Oriana? What are you doing?" Sugawara asked when his hand was snapped out of her friend's arm.

"It's not me!" Oriana shouted. "I think she's controlling me. Step back!"  
Without warning, her bone blades emerged from her wrists.

"Stop this!" she ordered the girl.

"As I said, there is nothing you can do about it now." her expression was dark, in stance ready to command Oriana's body for an attack at any moment. "You are going to kill your own friend and soon enough I will add you to my choir of friends!" she cheered. "Nothing could be more despair inducing. The more you feel it, The stronger I'll become!"

Her shrill voice penetrated Oriana's ears as she tried to suppress her own body from moving, but it was in vain. With another swing, Oriana lunged in Sugawara's direction. The boy barely evaded the blade.

"Suga, you have to stop me!" Oriana yelled as she continuously slashed the air in front of Suga's face.

"How?" his voice quavered.

The boy's legs gave in. He fell, completely open for an attack. Lifting her arms, Michimiya made Oriana jump right on top of Sugawara. He rolled to the side as the blades pierced the cement.

"Perfect." Suga murmured, his grimoire glowing by his side. "Flora Creation Magic: Flora Root."

Vine roots emerged from the ground and wrapped around Oriana's legs and arms. Michimiya kept pulling her own strings with might. Suppressing her painful screams, Oriana felt like her limp might detach out of her body.

"That is just no good." the girl lowered her voice.

With another pull, she had Oriana shrieking. One of her blades reached the root holding her leg. Then, she got the other leg free. Oriana was patting for air.

"That's enough!" Sugawara screamed to Michimiya.

"Yeah that's right…" she glared at the boy. "That is quite enough of you."

With a pull, Oriana screamed in agony as the roots broke with the sheer force of her arms. Then, she jolted in Sugawara's direction. Her right blade pressed forward past his clothing and skin.

"No!" she shouted.

Red stained her white blade. Blood spattered to her face and chest as she slithered the blade from Sugawara's back.

"Suga!"

Sugawara rolled on himself before falling to his knees. His hands stained with warm blood. His body hit the floor with a thud. A pool of red started to grow under him.

"Suga!" Oriana shouted, as tears blurred her vision. "Suga, say something!"

"All that blood looks good on you. It really brings out your eyes." her voice was granting. "Don't worry, I'll bury him good and straight and right."

\-----

A/N:

So, I don't normally write notes in my chapters, because I really believe no one reads these anymore, but I feel I should say something after this chapter and also because I have some knews!

If you are feeling bad about Suga, I KNOW, I AM TOO. But trust me, everything is fine. I swear, just trust me. Also, I want to disclose once again that I don't hate Michimiya at all, I just needed a villian and she had the role I needed her to have. It was by convenience, really. Just trust me on this! Everything is fine, please don't stop reading because of Sugawara being hurt or because I made Michimiya a villain! I swear it gets better, hahaha.

Also, some news: I started a new story with My Hero Academia characters. It's a Kiribaku fanfiction in a scenario where they do have their powers, but none of our favourite characters got into UA, but some of them have marks that make them special. A "chosen-one" kind of thing. It's terribly explained, but if it sounds cool to you, give it a read. There are two chapters currently available, both in and AO3!


	13. A bond that can never be crossed

Strings kept her body immobile, even so, she tried to fight them. Her muscles screamed with the force she put into them. Tears rolled down her face contorted with agony. She wanted to run to Sugawara, she wanted to make sure he was okay, but his body didn't move, rolled over himself, layed on the floor.

"All that despair you're feeling, I can feel it too." Michimiya said in a high-pitch voice. "It's an amazing sensation. All this power."

A ray of sunlight cut through the clouds. It might have been a trick of the light or maybe Oriana was seeing what she wanted to see, but she was sure Sugawara's figure flinched, just a millimeter and it was barely noticeable. Soon, Michimiya was shrieking in pain. The string she held became loose as she held her own head with her two hands, freeing Oriana from her grasp.

"What is happening?!" Michimiya shouted. "What is this?"

Something reflected in the space between Oriana and the other girl. Thin and practically invisible, the string had caught the light and Oriana could see it. Not wasting one more second, she raised her arm to cut the strings and immediately they disintegrated into thin air.

Michimiya peeked through her fingers, Oriana held her gaze. The girl was in pain for some reason, but that didn't mean Oriana would show her any mercy.

"How-," Michimiya interrupted herself with a scream. Then, she whirled and jolted to the roof door, she nearly fell midway as she disappeared behind the door.

Oriana let a pained sigh leave her mouth, right before her blades disappeared. She ran to Sugawara, kneeled in the pool of blood beside him and held his dear friend close to her chest. He looked paler than usual.

"Suga, please," she spoke with a brittle voice. "Please, say something."

Slowly, Sugawara started to open his eyes ever so slightly, just enough to Oriana drop her shoulders in relief.

"You're alive!" she tightened her grip around him. "Suga, I'm so sorry." she cried as she undressed her black robe and ripped it into two. Balling the tissue with her hand, Oriana rushed into applying pressure to the front wound.

Her tears fell in Sugawara's warm smile.

"It's fine. It wasn't you, I know that." his weak voice brought more tears to Oriana. "But it's not over yet, you have to go after her." he coughed.

"There is no way I'm leaving you here." Oriana cried.

None of them were healers and there was no one who would come for them. There really was only one option for Oriana, even if Sugawara insisted on the second.

"I'm bringing you back." she breathed heavily. "I'm bringing you to the Embassy, they can help you."

"You have to help-" he coughed. "You have to help the others, they're in danger."

"Don't be stupid! You're bleeding to death, you are the priority right now!" there was panic in her yelling and her tone was definitive.

Oriana called for her broom and it instantly came to her side.

"You think you can stand?" her voice was trembling.

"Yeah, I'm alright."

Oriana wanted to whack him for lying, but she thought she had done enough. Shifting to her feet, she helps Sugawara stand and positioned him in a way he would be leaning forwards on the broom.

"Keep the pressure here." Oriana led one of his arms to the fabric against his wound.

Oriana sat in front of him, one hand holding Sugawara's arm around her stomach, the other keeping balance on the broom. Suga's head fell lazily on her shoulder.

"Don't you dare fall asleep!" she shouted as she made sure the invisible cloak covered both of them. "Don't sleep, talk to me."

He hummed for a moment, as long he made some noise, it was enough for Oriana to be able to breathe.

"Now you saw my true ability." his voice was strangled by his own cough.

Oriana heard him despite the coughing. She was trying to process what he said, it was then she remembered how Michimiya shrieked from pain all of a sudden when nothing had touched her.

"That was you?"

"It's a power that was born with me," Suga explained. "I can inflict pain to someone by mere thought."

Oriana tried not to gasp, but her grip tightened around Suga's hands.

"That's why I left. I didn't like it, I could barely control it at first." his voice was strangled again at the end of the sentence. "Once I gained my grimoire, it got even more out of control and I- I hated it." he paused. "There is no one who should be able to inflict pain by the mere thought of it. It should never be that easy."

"It wasn't easy for you, was it?" Oriana interrupted him.

"Of course not."

"That power, it saved you and me. It gave us a chance." she was too focused to notice, but Sugawara lifted his head. "Because you have that power, because you used it, even if it cost you. You might have saved everyone. I truly didn't have a single clue of what I was going to do back there. So, thank you."

It was mere moments until they arrived at the Embassy. There was no one to receive them. As Oriana carried Sugawara down the stairs, she yelled for help. Thankfully, they were quick to react and had an emergency room for this kind of situation. They reassured Oriana her friend would be fine and she could finally breathe with relief. However, her troubles were nowhere near done. There was still work to do and she was ready to go back.

"Oriana!" Sugawara called before she could leave the room. "Go home and eat something!"

"What?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"Don't you dare go back there without eating!"

It struck her, Charmy's meals would replenish her mana and her strenght. She would be back in tiptop condition, probably even stronger. As one of the staff acted as a nurse and cut the fabric of Sugawara's shirt, another one pushed Oriana out of the room.

"We got this under control." they said. "We will send backup to the Karasuno Highschool as soon as we can."

\-----

There was no time to lose and Oriana's mana peaked inside her body. It was now or never. Oriana burst through the school's roof entrance still in her broom, she knocked down the door and the metal slid down the first flight of stairs. The dark mana was overwhelming inside walls, but her senses were just as sharpened by Charmy's food. The feeling of oppressiveness was stronger on the second floor. She climbed out of the broom. Michimiya had to be there and somehow she had to lure her outside the building filled with students.

"And me thinking you had forgotten all about me."

Oriana whirled at the sound of Michimiya's voice.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily." Oriana's grimoire glowed by her side.

A grimoire hoovered by Michimiya's side, it glowed a dark purple colour.

"Good. That means you haven't forgotten your friends either." she flicked her wrist in the air.

Oriana heard the faint sound of steps that came from every direction. Whirling her head from one side to the other, she tried to count them, but it was impossible. There must have been hundreds of students surrounding her. In the stairs, in the corridor behind her and by Michimiya's side were familiar faces. Daichi, Hinata and the rest of the volleyball team stared at Oriana with blank faces and dark looks in their eyes. Just like the rest of the students. Was Michimiya really controlling everyone? Just the sight of it made Oriana's skin crawl. It was just like the elf incident. She knew the faces, they were her friends, but they weren't them anymore.

"How about we settle this outside?" Oriana tried to control the fright in her voice.

"So you can ambush me? I don't think so." her shrill tone penetrated Oriana's ears. "I still haven't given up on keeping you, but let me say that you have been a terrible, terrible friend."

"I know that."

Oriana shifted to a fighting stance, but the absent faces staring at her kept her from using any spells. She couldn't risk it. There were too many people there. She didn't want to fight her friends. Not again.

"I know I haven't been a good friend to anyone. I lied about my past, I didn't even tell them my real name." her voice was tight with regret. "But I'm here now. And I'll save everyone alone if I need to!" she shouted, never letting go of Michimiya's gaze.

"Is that right? Tell me how are you going to fight me when I have full control of your friends."

With no answer from Oriana, the girl cackled maniacally.

"Yes, feed me with your despair!"

Oriana closed her fists by her sides. There must be something she can do, anything.

"What are you going to do with all these people?"

"My friends, you mean?" she hummed. With her typically cheeky look on her face, her tone changed completely. "We all fucking burn in the end. We will all die together, my choir of friends, we will all scream together in hell!"

Oriana's body froze as she processed those words. Her body was frozen in fear, she could only muster up a simple question that instinctively slipped her tongue.

"Why?"

Michimiya's gaze fell to her feet as she spoke lower than usual.

"I won't die alone. I will never be alone again. I will have my friends with me!" she shouted the last sentence.

"Like hell I'm going to let you do that!" Oriana screamed, mustering up all her courage. "Bone Creation Magic: Combat Claw." long claws made of her own bone emerged from her knuckles, they surpassed the length of her fingers. "Velocity Rush."

With this, Oriana rushed in mid-air to Michimiya, prepared to slash her throat if needed. However, as she blinked, Michimiya disappeared. In her place was Kiyoko's deadpan expression. Oriana stopped in her tracks just in time.

"You really think it will be that easy?" her voice said behind Kiyoko's figure. "I have an army of my dear friends to protect me!"

The ecstasy in her voice made Oriana step back, but she barely had the time to move before Asahi's body lunged at her. With her flying spell still in effect, she was able to jump from his grasp, but there was not enough height to escape the grasp of his hand.

"Asahi! Snap out of it!" she pleaded as she tried to yank her ankle from the grip.

"He can't hear you. None of them can."

As Asahi pushed Oriana to him, Michimiya appeared from behind Kiyoko. It was a desperate move, but it was all she had. Oriana let herself be pulled, as soon as she was close enough, she swinged her claw at the mage, but someone else was already in front of her. Unable to stop her movement, Oriana scratched someone's shoulder. She retracted from them to not do too much damage, but as she looked into their dead eyes she realized it was Daichi who she had just scratched. He didn't whine or move. There was no reaction in his face. Then, Asahi threw her body to the floor with force. Oriana glided on the cold floor and stopped a few meters away from Michimiya, at the bottom of the stairs, just where she started.. As she breathed heavily, she told herself not to cry. Even so, Michimiya could feel her despair from a mile away.

"Look what you did! My lovely Daichi."

Oriana grunted as she tried to pull herself up. Sugawara's blood was still staining her knees and was stuck under nails. Her bone claws dripped with Daichi's blood. She made her claws retract from her trembling hands and the dripping sound stopped. She never wanted to fight her friends ever again. She couldn't let it happen ever again.

She brought herself to one of her knees and leaned on it. In between breaths, Oriana spoke,

"You say they are your dear friends-" she lifted her head to meet Michimiya's gaze. "But you are willing to use them as shields? If they truly are your dearest friends, you would protect them at all costs!" her throat hurt and scratched from her yells.

Oriana carried the blame from what had happened in this building and to her own friends, that is why she would now fight to protect them. She would rise, she would win.

"My friends are protecting me! Me!" the other mage yelled back. "I'm that important to them! And soon, you will join them too."

"You can't force people into friendships like that." Oriana struggled for air. "Friendship is built on trust. Friendship is a bond that can't be broken. And the strings you're using to control everyone, they are breakable."

"Let's see you try then." Michimiya scoffed.

She turned the pages of her grimoire, in search of a desperate solution, a plan. Something she could do. She held herself on a wish for the Black Bulls to burst through the walls and save her. However, it would never happen. She was alone.

"Bone Creation Magic: Morph Touch." her bone tendrils extended from the nape of her neck.

"Again? How many people are you going to hurt before you realize there is nothing you can do against me? Unless, of course, you are planning on fighting your own friends."

"Velocity Rush."

All she needed was an opening.

In a flash, she was above Michimiya's head. Fueled by anger, she was faster than before. With the Black Bulls in mind, she knew there was a way. She only needed to aim one single tendril in her head. One shot and everything was over. Everything would be back to normal.

"Oblivion Omni Bullet."

Wide open from above, with no one who could shield her fast enough, the single bullet hit Michimiya's forehead and her body fell with a thud.

\-----

Friendship, a bond that would never be crossed. The family you get to choose, the ones that cross your mind all the time. The ones that you would do anything to protect.

Oriana opened her eyes to be faced with the grey sky above. She could feel the bumps and falters of someone's walk. When she realized she was laying on fabric, she understood she must have been carried on a stretcher to the outside of the building. She jolted her body up and alarmed the two men who carried her as a result.

"Don't move too much. You must have used a lot of mana." one of them warned, but a sense of urgency flooded her.

There was something she had to check on. Oriana kicked her legs out of the stretcher and ignored the protests from the two men as she limped to the police van. She couldn't take two steps before she bent over herself in pain. Despite the pain in her ribs, she didn't give up. She applied pressure to her side and bit the inside of her cheek to hold in the cries. When she grabbed hold of the handle on the back door of the van, Oriana exhaled.

It wasn't as easy as she expected, but she managed to get the door open with a pained swing of her arm. Inside was one single person, crestfallen and hands behind their back. They flinched to the sudden light, but as their eyes adjusted, they were able to lift their head and open their eyelids to Oriana. A smile opened on their face.

"My friend!" Michimiya screeched. "You came for me. It makes me so happy!"

Well, she was certainly back to her normal behaviour.

"You're okay…" Oriana said between heavy breaths.

"I thought you were going to kill me, but you didn't. It means you must care for me!"

Oriana blinked. This girl really had high levels of courage, but none of notion. Even after Oriana paralyzed her with her omni bullet, she rambled about being her friend. Her shrieking voice was annoying and Oriana had to fight the urge to close the door as soon as the girl spoke, but even so, she was finally able to drop her shoulders in relief.

"We are going to be great friends from now on!"

"Are you clinically insane or incredibly annoying?" Oriana scoffed, a soft smile appeared on her face.

"I don't know, probably both." she shrugged. "But I finally understand."

"Hmm?" Oriana interjected.

"How friendship works. You can't force people to be your friends, right?"

Oriana noded in response.

"That's why I'm asking you if we can be friends now."

Michimiya's smile wasn't her usually cheeky expression that Oriana had always hated. It was a genuine smile, so bright that Oriana couldn't help but smile honestly to her as well.

"I think we can be friends now."

\-----

A/N:

I might or might not have given Oriana PTSD. My bad. It just adds character, don't worry about it. (It's a joke, please don't take it seriously)

Literally put her in a similar situation as the elf incident (as in she had to fight against her friends, kind of) and I didn't even do it on purpose. I always planned on Oriana and Michimiya fighting, but I didn't know how it would go down until I wrote the actual scene. Also, I am aware that Oriana over-reacted to Sugawara's injury, but I want you to know it was on purpose. Oriana is a emotional driven character (no shit) and extremely hard on herself. For thsi reason, it made sense that she would panic at the mere thought of her being the cause to her best friend's injury. If it was dramatic, that was the point.

Furthermore, I have bad and good news for you guys. Since I can't ask each one of you personally which one you would rather know about first, I'll start with the bad news.

This fic is about to wrap up. I already planned it and there will be two more chapters. The fourteeth chapter will be posted tommorrow if I can. The last chapter, I'm not gonna lie is really hard to write, because I don't know how to end it in a way that won't be painful, mostly to Oriana. Prepare for even more angst coming your way.

The good news is that I'm going to write a second installmente to Dishonesty! In one of my sleepless nights, I had a rush of ideas that were too funny to go to waste. I just have to write them! I'm thinking: Karasuno boys go to the Clover Kingdom and we will have Sugawara and Oriana act as tourist guides. Of course, the boys would meet the Black Bulls. Can you imagine the chaos? Cause I can and it's really funny. And I don't know how I didn't think about it before, but imagine Oriana usign modern/internet speech and no one having a clue of what she is saying. I know it's not part of her speech pattern, but Oriana using a slang word because she remembered it out of nowhere and then noticing how no one understood what she meant and then she just starts using slang to confuse everyone for fun. I think it would be hilarious. Also, I have had this scene in my head with Oriana and Zora that I didn't get a chance to write and I'm itching to do it. I could've written this scene in any Zora fanfiction with any other original character, to be honest, but since I'm writing a second installment to this fic, I might as well write it with Oriana. There is something I need your opinion on, though. I've been taking advantage of the time between the elf incident and the next arc, the Spade Kingdom arc, I believe? I don't read the manga, so I'm not 100% sure. I've benn avoiding writing the fight with the new demon, because it will definitely fall short of the cannon story. The ideal situation would be to basically re-write the cannon fight and insert Oriana on the plot, but with all the fillers the anime is getting, I have no idea when the arc will actually start. I could also stall for time and use the ideas in the fillers or come up with another story line like I did for the first installment.

I just know that if I ended Oriana's story here, it would be really unsatisfaying (you will understand why) and there is still so much it could happen and I could take this story pretty much anywhere. So many possibilities!

Just tell me what you think I should do. I will definitely re-write the next cannon arc with Oriana, unless I change my mind meanwhile or if you guys are not interested in reading that, but while that aires or not, I have to write something. I have plenty of ideas right now, but it only goes so far.

If you could help me with this dilema, I would really appreaciate it!


	14. We are just getting started

"Suga, please, let me sleep," Oriana groaned. "You shouldn't be moving either."

"Oh, c'mon," Sugawara pleaded, for the hundredth time. "We have to leave tomorrow already. We won't have other chances to see them."

Oriana was aware of that fact. They have been stuck in the hospital wing that was reserved by the Magic Embassy. No one that wasn't either Embassy staff or a Magic Knight or a nurse or medic, or the Ambassador himself was allowed to go in. However, Oriana and Sugawara were free to leave whenever they wanted, since they were discharged last night, however Ambassador Iachima wanted to make sure they were comfortable. Was it mentioned that he forced one of his assistants to go to Oriana's house, with her permission, and retrieve some of Charmy's pre-made meals? It was the only way to keep Oriana from constantly collapsing from mana deficiency. and he was really persistent.

"Oriana! Let's go already!" Suga shouted as he pushed the covers from Oriana.

"I swear to fucking-"

"Language."

Oriana groaned, but she had no other option but to comply. Sugawara could really be a big child sometimes and as noisy as any of their juniors in the Karasuno team. It wasn't like the Black Bulls mage planned to sleep until the boat departed the next day, but she definitely planned to rest that morning. Apparently, that was not an option when Suga was around.

She hadn't seen anyone besides Sugawara and Michimiya since the fight in the highschool. The most recent memory she had of them was their blank expressions and lifeless eyes. That image went through her brain too many times while she was awake. It was the very first image in her mind as she opened her eyes. She wanted to erase it, replace it with a new memory before she left again.

Without another word, Oriana let her best friend pull her from her bed. Within the hour, they were both ready to leave the hospital. They were asked to not wear their Magic Knights robes as the streets weren't empty anymore and life had come back to the Miyagi Prefecture, this reminded Oriana of how she had to tear her own robe apart. She could hear Magna and Finral complaining already.

Even the weather seemed to agree to the revived streets. The sun was warm considering it was winter, but it still called for a winter coat given the chilly wind.

"Are you satisfied now?" Oriana asked.

"We are just getting started."

With that said, Sugawara steered suddenly in the opposite direction from Oriana's house.

"Where are you going?"

"Visit the boys, obviously."

Oriana sighed, she wasn't excited about coming back to Karasuno Highschool that soon, but Sugawara would drag her there if needed. She just didn't have the structure to tell him the full view of what she had experienced. Too soon to talk about it, but he knew the gist of what happened. Oriana wished it could just let the whole incident fall into oblivion. To forget it ever happened.

"You think Daichi still doesn't want to see us?" Oriana asked suddenly.

Sugawara was taken by surprise. There was some hesitance in his step and now he walked side to side with Oriana.

"No, I think it was the effect of the spell." he paused. "I'm sure of it."

Hopefully, that would be the case. Oriana never fully processed that encounter, it left her too angry for that. Probably the effect of the spell as well.

As the duo climbed the hill, they were surrounded with Karasuno uniforms. Oriana felt some sense of relief. It was nostalgic to see the young faces in black uniforms. The two worlds she lived in were completely different, so everytime she went back to one of her homes, no matter how long it had been, she couldn't help but smile fondly. The cold breeze made her clutch to her coat, but she felt lighter.

As they made their way to the school entrance, the duo was greeted with familiar joyous faces, waving energetically. For some reason, even the vice-director was there.

"Guys! We're here!" Suga shouted with glee.

Oriana laughed at his energy and jolted behind him when he suddenly decided to run to their friends. Soon, the image of blank faces faded from Oriana's mind. Their tears and laughs, the chaotic energy, the hugs and pats on the back symbolized that it was the real Karasuno volleyball team. Her friends were back. What a feeling to be right there, beside them and holding them close again. Oriana couldn't stop her tears as the emotions kept piling up. She didn't allow herself to cry when the sky fell down in the Miyagi Prefecture, but since everything was over, the sense of relief made her muscles relax. The chains of the dark mage were gone and Oriana could laugh freely again. At least for that moment.

Somehow, both Sugawara and Oriana were dragged inside the building by the director's persistence. A compensation for saving the school and the whole town, he allowed the duo of mages to visit the school premises and insisted on paying for lunch. Immediately, Hinata grabbed hold of Suga's and Oriana's attention to the gym and pleaded to see how much better he had gotten. None of them had the structure to refuse Hinata when he was an adorable jumpy tangerine.

By lunch time, they shared meals in the school's roof and the Karasuno team shared the news of how they won their way into Nationals, as they had defeated both Seijoh and Shiratorizawa, and they would leave for Tokyo the following week for the tournament. Meanwhile, Sugawara was beyond thrilled to share the Coral Peacocks gossip. He really knew everything that happened inside the Headquarters. It was, honestly, a little scary. Oriana finally got to share some her own stories. Talked about her squadmates and their magic and shared her most recent mission.

"Can we see some of your magic tricks? Can we? Can we?" Hinata begged.

This caused sour expressions to both Suga and Oriana as they evaded the junior's pleading eyes.

"Don't call it 'magic tricks'." Sugawara disclosed in a disappointed tone.

"It's spells…" Oriana continued.

"Show us some spells! Please!" this time, it was Yachi that asked.

'Thank goodness for Charmy's meals.'

Oriana's grimoire glowed by her side as she showed off her blades and combat claws. With her bone tendrils, she lifted the first years in the air and immediately Nishinoya and Tanaka asked for a turn.

"What can you do, Suga?" Asahi asked with a curious glint in his eye.

"Oh, you better be prepared."

With his grimoire, Sugawara casted a spell that evoked plant roots from the cement and created various patterns in the air.

"That 's it?" Tsukishima commented.

"What do you mean 'that's it'? I could make this whole building shake and crumble if I wanted to!" the boy divulged.

"Do it!" Nishinoya and Hinata shouted in unison.

"No!" Daichi and Oriana immediately yelled in return.

\-----

By the end of the evening, Oriana found herself in her old classroom. Classes were over and the rooms were empty. The walls had an orange tint from the sunset displayed in the clean glass windows. The disposition of the room looked exactly the same and it still had the characteristic chalk scent. She leaned on the doorframe, but the seat by the window looked inviting. They were never allowed to sit on the tables, however, no one was there to stop her. She barely had time to assume a comfortable position before a stentorian voice filled the silence.

"Miss, get off that table!"

"Yes, I'm sorry!" Oriana screeched and instantly jumped off the table as per instinct.

When she heard a familiar laugh, she turned her head to it's direction. That lovable laugh she knew so well..

"That was hilarious!" Daichi said between laughs.

"It wasn't funny at all!" Oriana contradicted. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Exactly as planned." Daichi said before he walked up to her.

He lifted the chair out of the way and dragged the table in front of Oriana closer to her before he sat on it. Oriana groaned and plopped back to the table.

"Seriously, hearing that made me feel like a highschool student again."

"You weren't gone for that long." Daichi jeered. "Don't speak like you've been gone for years."

She glared at him for a moment, then turning her attention to the sunset. The day was about to end. The days seemed shorter in the South. Life in Miyagi seemed easier, because it honestly was. Everything was joyful when she was nothing but an ordinary highschool student. Her only worries were finals and due dates. In comparison to her worries in the Clover Kingdom and as a Magic Knight, those were absolutely nothing to her. She still would complain about it, but she said to herself that she had to fulfill her role as a normal student and complaining was part of it.

"How's your shoulder?"

Nothing could hide the guilt in her eyes.

"It's just a scratch. I barely remember it's there."

"I'm sorry I did that to you."

"I barely even remember it happening! Don't worry about it, seriously. It 's fine."

Oriana dropped her shoulders. His lower tone always calmed her. She held his kind gaze for a while longer before she whirled her head to the sunset again.

"We missed you." Daichi said almost in a whisper. "I missed you."

Oriana scoffed.

"Well, that's much better than what you said to me last time."

Daichi tilted his head,

"What did I say to you?"

"You don't remember that either?"

"My memory became foggy after you two left, to be honest." he scratched his cheek while he admitted to his lack of memory.

That would mean he also didn't remember what she said to him.

'It 's for the best.'

"It doesn't matter anymore. I forgive you."

"Was it really that bad?" Daichi asked, his voice filled with regret.

Oriana had to laugh at his reaction.

"That's not fair." he murmured, but then, he stopped and searched Oriana's glowing features.

His hand cupped Oriana's face and his thumb caressed her cheek. Her laughter ceased. She tried to feel it, the rush it used to be when her and Daichi touched. As she held his gaze again, she almost wanted to feel it, but it wasn't there. He leaned closer to Oriana and pulled her head gently to his.

The wish for a normal life.

By instinct, Oriana closed her eyes as their faces got closer.

It wasn't her wish anymore.

Oriana opened her eyes and put light pressure in Daichi's chest with her hand as she pushed him away.

"I'm sorry."

There was a flinch of disappointment in his face, it lasted only a second before he smiled fondly and let his hand fall from her face.

"I understand. Don't worry, I get it. Really." he paused. "I'll wait for you."

Thankfully, it was time to head back. With hesitant and awkward moves, they had to put the tables and chair back in their original positions. It was time to say goodbye to Miyagi and the friends she made there once again and go back to the unknown adventures and dangers that called her name in the Clover Kingdom. She made the same promise, that if she was to come back, she would tell them everything about it and once again, it left a bittersweet feeling.

\-----

A/N:

This was a last good bye to Daichi, the Karasuno team and Oriana's easy life. At least, in this installment. I like to think that Oriana had a good development, but I left a lot of room for her to grow as a person. Even I don't know what will happen in the second installment yet when it comes to her character development, so we'll see, hahaha. It would be interesting to see her fall into her old habits of lying because it was easier, but that would also be going back and forth in the same theme. We'll see what happens.

Also, another great reason for giving Dishonesty a second installment is that I didn't get to show off the full extent of Oriana's and Sugawara's habilities. There are so many spells and modes that haven't been showed yet, but since I gave those to them, I have to show it off. It's only right!

In regards to the last chapter, it's not finished yet. I tried writing more yesterday, but it's so hard! And things keep getting in the way, it's like it doesn't want to be written. Or maybe it's a message from the Universe for me to change it. But nah, I don't think I will. It will be a bridge for what's coming and a transition in Oriana's and Zora's relationship. With that said, I have no clue when I'm going to publish it, hopefully soon, but I can't make any promises.

Until then, remember to be kind to everyone!


	15. I need space

Three weeks. That's how much training Oriana missed with her mission in the South. She could already hear Mereoleona's roaring knock on the hideout door and the flame magic on her head. At that rate, she would never be able to reach level zero or fight alongside her squadmates. Certainly, there had to be some way Oriana could compensate for the time lost. Those thoughts rushed through her mind on her way back to the hideout, up in the skies of the common realm. She didn't even notice how much stronger she had gotten from her fight with Michimiya. She was not even realizing she defeated a dark mage on her own. She felt like she still had catching up to do. She could see their back towards her, as they moved forward and got stronger while she was left behind.

However, there was something else she had to do. Before anything else, she wouldn't be able to focus on her long term objectives if she didn't talk to Zora. While in Miyagi, it was different. She had other worries, but in the Clover Kingdom it was harder not to think of him. Nearly impossible as everything would spark his memory. It had been a while since they last saw each other. They weren't in good terms either, but Oriana had to believe there was a way to fix it. To make amends, one last time. She was determined to leave everything out in the open, no more lies, no more half truths. She was going to say it how it was and after that, it would depend on Zora.

Her head was a mess because, even though duty called her, there was nothing she wanted more than to be by Zora's side.

\-----

She didn't need to go a long way to find him. It was easier than she thought it would be. Never had she expected to find him seated on the same stool she sat on the last time she was there, when she told her story to the Black Bulls. After all the things they went through, he was right there, back turned to her, he didn't move a muscle as he held on to this glass of water. She knew for a fact that he could feel her presence, but she didn't care if he decided to say nothing.

It had been too long since she felt Zora's presence herself. She wasn't sure what to say, but in that moment, something pulled her to him. She dropped her bags in the middle of the common room. Her eyes were blurry. She hadn't noticed how much she truly missed him. She walked softly towards his back and wrapped her arms around his torso as she rested her head on the nape of his neck. Oriana smiled when there was a hand on top of hers. Suddenly, she could breathe easier.

"You can tell me." Zora's voice was filled with hesitation.

He was just like her, trying to desperately reconnect the pieces that once were the picture of them together.

Oriana straightened her back and freed Zora of her embrace, but kept pressing her hand against his as she sat on the stool by his side. She rested her elbow on the balcony for support as she leaned to look at Zora's face and searched for his eyes. His face was unreadable when he looked up to her and even as she told him everything. After that day, Oriana could finally let go of her past. That was the last day this topic had to be brought up. So, she held on tight to his hand, afraid that at any moment he would let go. She didn't want him to, not yet. She was aware that it was his decision to make, but just not yet.

Every single excuse she had ever made to herself, she threw them away. She searched Zora's eyes, but they showed no emotion as she spoke of her past. By the time she was over and got to the point where he came for her in Japan, her voice was low and croaky and silence reigned.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

His silence was unusual. He didn't comment or make any noise while she spoke. Suddenly, his hand fell from Oriana's as he blinked and looked away from Oriana's bleak expression. Her mind entered a panic state. The possibility she might have blown it all to flames became very real when Zora's hand fell from hers.

"They say people are the reflection of their parents," Zora paused and looked Oriana in the eyes. "From what you just told me, you're the spitting image of your father."

Oriana gasped as she put some distance between Zora and herself. In disbelief, she couldn't look away from Zora's accusing eyes. Oriana searched from some hint of sympathy in them, anything that would tell her there was hope for them, but there was nothing.

"Why would you say that?" her voice was brittle.

"You father lied to your sister and everyone around your family about how he was treating you. He lied about your death when he knew very well you were alive." he explained. "From my perspective, you lied just as much as he did. To your squad, to your friends, to me. You put on this facade, gave it a name and refused to tell us who you really were."

"My father is an abusive and manipulative son of a bitch." with tears in her eyes, Oriana jumped from her stool, fists clenched by her sides. "He treated me like shit, like an object that belonged to him! I had to escape on my own, I was terrified he would ever find me! Don't you fucking dare to compare me with that monster!" she shouted.

"And after all these years, were you ever going to tell us about it?"

"It's not that easy!"

"Didn't you manipulate everyone here and your friends in Japan into thinking you were someone you were not?" he questioned, his eyes pierced through Oriana's. "The same way your father manipulates his household."

"I never used you! Or anyone! How can you say something like that?"

Oriana's tears spilled from her eyes, rolled down her features and fell to the floor between them. Her breath was loud and wavered.

"I would never use you."

\-----

If she respected him in the least, she would have told him. She should know he would be able to handle it. He would have never abandoned her in a scenario where Oriana told him the truth. Oriana had been disrespectful towards him, she couldn't feel the same way Zora did. He wished he could just erase those feelings. It was like a never ending routine of forgiving Oriana only so another piece of her secretive past would surprise him and change everything he knew about her. The first time, he lied to himself because he genuinely believed she felt the same, but Zora wasn't so sure anymore.

After she told him everything, or so she claimed, he wondered if there was even a point to it anymore. She clearly didn't feel the same. How could she? At that point, she didn't have to love him. He just wanted Oriana to be honest with him for once.

Zora found the way Oriana handled her whole love life disrespectful. If she hadn't taken his heart already, if he hadn't touched her skin, then maybe they could get a brand new start.

He rose from his seat, but was still undecided if the argument was worth having. If he should just leave her there, like he did in the Clover Palace. Or maybe they could actually talk it through. He wanted to rub away her tears, but if he touched her again, he would fall for her one more time, so he kept his hands in his pockets.

"I just feel like you are … over us." he Zora admitted. "You're not taking it seriously, not like me. You would have told me sooner if you were."

"Are you really going back to that?"

He couldn't delete or erase his feelings. He didn't need them either. He couldn't handle them anymore. He didn't know what to do with them. He had been falling into pieces ever since she left for her mission. She left him in the Clover Kingdom without a word. Again.

"Zora, if I didn't love you, do you really think I would go through all this trouble? Do you think I would have taken the time to explain myself to you?"

'Just let go. It's easier.'

"I want to make it up to you. I want to make amends, but I need you to want the same." Oriana continued. "Let's make this work."

She was looking for his eyes, but the honesty shown in her own made Zora look away. He wanted to believe her, but he was so tired of being used.

"Why are you trying so hard?"

"Because I love you! Why else would I be here? When you went to the South to bring me back, that's when I knew where I belonged. Here. With you."

His mind contorted in confusion with the many words he wanted to say to her. However, he could manage to say three,

"I need space."

\-----

Idle chatter filled Oriana's ears as her head felt dizzier with every mug she emptied. She was supposed to get one drink with Sugawara to relax from what happened that evening, but once she started, it was difficult to stop. The drink she had already asked for was yet to come when she finished her sixth… seventh...eighth…? Who was even counting at that point?

"What am I supposed to do now?" Oriana wondered out loud as she stared at the bottom of her empty mug.

"He asked you to give him space, right? Then do that." Sugawara exhorted with a tone of dismissal.

"What if he never comes back?"

"Just relax! Everything will sort out eventually."

Oriana lifted her eyes to her also very drunk friend. He was great at keeping up with Oriana and her drinking. It had been so long since she had a good drink of ale, that those went down like it was water.

"I feel like I fucked up big time. But he won't give a chance!" her tone was louder and louder with every sentence. "We live in the same place, he can't just pretend I'm not there! If he doesn't want to forgive me he should just say it!"

"Oriana…"

"I know it's my fault, dammit!" she lifted her forearm and rested her forehead on the palm of her hand, once again she faced the table. "This sucks."

"It will be fine! The guy likes ya!"

"I really hate how dismissive of everything you get when you're drunk."

"I'm sorry," he started, more sincere. "I can't always know the answer."

Oriana groaned in response.

There was something missing that night. There were no stars in the sky or in her eyes. The way his features caught the light, the hurt in his voice. Oriana knew Zora was being serious about needing space, but what could she do about the feeling of missing something? How was she to deal with the comfort she found only in her drunk fantasies. That he would fly through that door and hold her like he always does. The chains of the past held her down for so long, but Zora was always there to make it better. That night the chains were gone, but so was Zora. It was impossible, it would never happen, but she wished that he was still in that stool, back in the hideout, waiting for her to get back, with an answer on his lips.

\-----

A/N:

Before anything else, I want to remind everyone that this story will get a second installment, so please refrain from violent behaviour. I did warn you that the story would have a unsatisfying ending if it ended here!

About their argument, I wanted to include Oriana's and Zora's POV because I wanted to make clear that both were hurt and both had a rough past. If you think Zora was being rough, take in consideration his story before the Black Bulls and his character overall. I feel like in this situation he would be really conflicted and need time to think about things. Oriana already made it clear she wants to be with him, she is just waiting for him to make up his mind. All that will be for the next installment coming... some point in the future. Also, yes, the line "They say a child is a reflection of their parents" was taken from Zora's filler episode, in case that was soundig familiar to you.

I'm still planning and outlining the next installment, but I can say I'm really excited and I have many, many ideas! It's going to be fun and angsty. Basically I'm going to keep the same vibe, so be prepared for that. Also, while we are still being fed fillers in the anime, I will not touch the war/fight/idk with the demon, although I will be using some of the ideas presented in the fillers and take advantage of that. If I will ever follow the cannon in a future installment is still debatable. It will really depend of how the arc goes and if i can figure out a way to include Oriana in it. 

Meanwhile, there is another fic from me you can read. It's a My Hero Academia story that I have shamelessly plugged here before. Also, I'm planning a new crossover. And that's all I'm saying about it, haha.

Keep safe and wear a mask!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It's me from the future. I wanted to let you know that the first chapter of the second installment of Dishonesty has been published! The second installment is called "Heiress" and it's available in fanfiction.net and on AO3. Have fun!


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